Striking Down of the Knock and Wait Rule
So lets say that you are a policeman and you have a warrant for searching the home of a person who is suspected to be a drug dealer. Would you rather go to his home, knock on the door and wait for at least 20 seconds to follow an arcane and non-common sensical law and maybe give the guy sometime to get equipped with gun, hide evidence or run from the back door? Or would you rather just barge inside, retaining the element of surprise with you? I suspect any person with little bit of common sense will choose to do the latter.
But the New York Times is in agony over the Supreme Court Decision yesterday that allows the police to do exactly that. Remember, we are not talking about warrant less searches here - the police still has the warrant to search the home of that person - we are just talking about the niceties here. Knock and Wait? Well that is just ridiculous.
The Supreme Court yesterday substantially diminished Americans’ right to privacy in their own homes. The rule that police officers must “knock and announce” themselves before entering a private home is a venerable one, and a well-established part of Fourth Amendment law. But President Bush’s two recent Supreme Court appointments have now provided the votes for a 5-4 decision eviscerating this rule.This decision should offend anyone, liberal or conservative, who worries about the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.The case arose out of the search of Booker T. Hudson’s home in Detroit in 1998. The police announced themselves but did not knock, and after waiting a few seconds, entered his home and seized drugs and a gun. There is no dispute that the search violated the knock-and-announce rule.
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