OKLAHOMA'S NO-KNOCK COPS

You and your law-abiding neighbors in Oklahoma might be just one
street address away from a life-threatening midnight raid by a local
paramilitary police unit. As these so-called SWAT squads increasingly
become America's favored search warrant delivery service, bungled
raids - including many to the wrong address - have skyrocketed. In
these assaults on private property, scores of innocent citizens,
police officers and nonviolent offenders have died.

In a recent Cato Institute report, "Overkill: The Rise of
Paramilitary Police Raids in America," Balko writes: "Over the last
25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its
civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise
in the use of paramilitary police - or Special Weapons and Tactics
(SWAT) units for routine police work. SWAT teams today mainly serve
narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home."

These raids -- as many as 40,000 per year -- terrorize nonviolent
drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians when teams
of heavily armed paramilitary units, dressed not as police officers
but as soldiers, invade their homes in the dead of night.

Balko reports that in 1996, Tulsa police raided the home of Mary Lou
Coonfield, 68, on a drug warrant. Coonfield awoke to find a man in
black standing in her bedroom, holding a gun. Thinking she was being
robbed, she grabbed a .22-caliber pistol and wounded a deputy
sheriff. In 1997, the warrant was ruled illegal. In 1999, a jury
acquitted Coonfield of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon
due to Oklahoma's "Make My Day" law, which allows residents to use
force against intruders in their home.

SWAT units were originally formed in response to civil riots and
bomb-toting radical groups in the 1960s. By 1995, one study found, 89
percent of police departments, including 65 percent of smaller towns'
in the 25,000-50,000 population range, had a paramilitary unit.

SWAT squads found new life in the emerging tough-on-drugs culture of
the 1970s. By 1995, serving search warrants, mostly in no-knock drug
raids, accounted for 75 percent of the actions of the nation's SWAT squads.

Why are SWAT squads a threat? First, they depend on notoriously
unreliable informants when picking raid targets. Second, SWAT teams
trained by U.S. Army Ranger and Navy Seal units blur the line between
war and law enforcement. Citizens are treated as if they are combatants.

Third, the use of military assault weapons and tactics actually turn
otherwise nonviolent situations into violent confrontations when
startled occupants try to arm and defend themselves.

Finally, police departments in the United States received money from
the sale of boats, cars and other assets seized during drug raids.
This money is then used to outfit more SWAT teams for more
asset-seizing raids -- a practice that serves as a license for SWAT
teams to confiscate private property for their own use.

To rein-in out-of-control SWAT units, Oklahoma's state and local
governments should limit the use of these squads to their original
purposes; end corrupting asset forfeiture policies; and pass laws
that safeguard families' rights to the privacy and sanctity of their homes.