NO-KNOCK LANGUAGE WEAK

June 29, 2000 - We still aren't fans of no-knock search warrants.

Although the recommendations of a review committee appointed by Denver
Mayor Wellington Webb will curtail some of the more serious abuses of that
tactic, we wish the panel had gone further.

It's good that both a district attorney and a judge must approve a warrant
in advance, but that provision already had been adopted by the legislature
after an ill-fated Denver police raid cost Mexican immigrant Ismael Mena
his life last September.

The Webb committee, however, could have adopted language the legislature
had rejected, requiring "clear and convincing evidence" of need before a
warrant is issued. Instead, it stayed with the existing standard "that
there exists a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing the
presence of the police ... would be dangerous or futile, or that it would
inhibit the effective investigation of the crime."

"Reasonable suspicion" is remarkably squishy language. Nonetheless, we are
pleased that the committee recommended the current policy be seen as a
minimum requirement. Before police barge into homes unannounced, they
should meet exacting standards of proof that the intrusion is essential -
for the public's and the officers' safety, as well as the significance of
the mission. Until the uproar after Mena's killing, about 90 percent of
no-knock warrants were used in relatively innocuous, victimless drug cases,
rather than to pursue dangerous felons or drug kingpins.

That said, we strongly support the committee's call for a semi-annual
statistical report on immediate-entry warrants sought and executed by
Denver police. Although we have stopped short of calling for a moratorium
on no-knock warrants, the tactic must be subjected to continual reevaluation.

Another plus in the panel report is the placing of a three-day (rather than
10-day) limit in which a warrant may be executed - a change that should
prevent dependence on stale information.

Perhaps the greatest benefit in the report, however, will come from
training and procedural changes that will instill greater care in the use
of these warrants. Knocking down someone's door in the dead of night
shouldn't be standard operating procedure for any police department. If any
good can flow from a needless death such as Mena's, it is that Denver will
use much greater caution with this most invasive tactic.