Louisville police's 'no-knock' warrants most often targeted Black residents, analysis shows
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Police disproportionately targeted Black residents for "no-knock" search warrants like the one that led officers to Breonna Taylor's door the night they fatally shot her, an analysis shows.
The findings by the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, echo the concerns of civil rights advocates and experts who say no-knock warrants are used more frequently against Black and brown Americans.
"The common factors are the poor and people of color – in a highly disproportionate way," said Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has testified before the U.S. Senate on law enforcement's use of military tactics and equipment.
In the past two years, before the city banned them in June, Louisville Metro Police Department officers received court approval for at least 27 no-knock warrants – allowing police to legally break in to homes without first knocking, announcing themselves and waiting for residents to respond, usually about 30 seconds.
An analysis by the Courier Journal showed that for 22 of those warrants, 82% of the listed suspects were Black and 68% were for addresses in the West End, a section of Louisville with predominantly Black neighborhoods. Several of the warrants remain sealed by a judge.
State Rep. Attica Scott, sponsor of Breonna's Law, which would ban no-knock search warrants statewide, said the findings are another example of over-policing in Louisville's Black communities.
"Policing has historically, and continues to be, racially disparate," she said. "It's not mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually healthy for people to live in fear of law enforcement or to cringe when they see them coming."
The warrants are a fraction of the thousands of search warrants the LMPD serves each year. In 2019, the department conducted more than 3,000 court-authorized searches.
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Supporters of no-knocks said they help protect officers searching for potentially dangerous suspects who might be armed.
In 17 of the no-knock warrants the Courier Journal analyzed, LMPD officers cited a history of violence or the possibility of weapons as the reason for the request – arguing the element of surprise was crucial so police didn't walk into an ambush.
In at least 15 searches, officers reported finding firearms or drugs, according to inventory logs attached to the warrants.
LMPD declined an interview for this story, offering an emailed statement saying the department is "aware of the varying opinions regarding no-knock warrants."
"Since Metro Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting their use by LMPD," wrote Sgt. John Bradley, an LMPD spokesman, "discussions on the merits and disadvantages of this tactic have been rendered moot for us."
Searches in which police knock, announce and quickly break down a door can cause as much harm as no-knock entries, Kraska said.
In October 2018, a Louisville SWAT team with a search warrant used a battering ram and a flash-bang grenade to get the Daugherty family out of their West End home, so police could search for marijuana.
The family's lawsuit in 2019 alleged police didn't have probable cause for the warrant, which was based on "materially false statements."
"In some instances, I'm sure they found whatever they were looking for," said Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League and a frequent critic of LMPD tactics. "Think about the times when they haven't found anything and the trauma on those families."
In a statement, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he expects all city employees to be committed to fairness and equity. He said he supported banning no-knock warrants.
"The danger which no-knock warrants pose to both civilians and police officers is greater than any benefit," Fischer spokeswoman Jean Porter said. "The top-to-bottom review of LMPD that is underway will look at current policies, procedures and protocols LMPD uses."
Searches most often involve suspects who are Black
The Courier Journal found Black residents have been disproportionately targeted for no-knock searches the past two years: 23 of the 28 suspects LMPD identified in the analyzed no-knock warrants were Black, about 82%.
70% of Jefferson County's 750,000 residents are white.
Black residents also were disproportionately targeted for search warrants without no-knock provisions, the Courier Journal found.
A sampling of 356 search warrants for 2019 showed 243 suspects identified by race. Of that group, 48% were Black and 48% were white, the analysis found.
Bradley, the LMPD spokesman, said race isn't a factor in requesting search warrants.
"Each search warrant is based on the evidence surrounding an individual case and gives no consideration to the targeting of any specific race of person, nor geographic area within the city," he said.
'We may be getting robbed'
Ashlea Burr, Mario Daugherty and their three children live in a part of Louisville targeted more frequently in LMPD's search warrants.
They can vouch for the terror they can generate.
On the morning of Oct. 26, 2018, SWAT officers arrived at the door.
Within moments, officers broke the glass on their front door, busted it open with a battering ram and shouted that they were police with a search warrant. Weapons drawn, officers threw in a flash-bang grenade.
Smoke filled the home as the family screamed.
"We were confused and first thought we may be getting robbed," Burr and Daugherty wrote, through their attorney, to the Courier Journal. "We were scared and kept thinking that one of our family members was going to be killed."
As police called out family members from the front, one of the 14-year-old girls ran through a back door. SWAT officers in the alley pointed weapons at her and told her to get on the ground.
Police body camera footage of the raid showed her crying as police broke through a gate in the back.
"Is she a kid?" one of the officers asked.
A minute after the raid began, the remaining family members walked out with their hands up, crying.
Burr and Daugherty sued the city in October 2019, five months before Taylor's death.
LMPD declined to comment on the lawsuit or the raid. In a court filing in response to the lawsuit, the city's attorneys denied the allegations and wrote "bags of marijuana were found during the search" but were not "packaged for sale."
U.S. District Court Judge David Hale granted the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit this month.
"The facts alleged in the complaint are egregious," he wrote in his ruling. "Those factual allegations do not support plaintiffs’ claim against Louisville Metro, however."
The attorney for the family filed an amended lawsuit.
Though the search warrant did not contain a no-knock provision, body camera footage shows police essentially treated it as one – breaking in the door at the same time they announced themselves, giving the family no time to react.
"Nobody should have their home raided by 18 SWAT officers with assault rifles pointed at their children, especially people who don’t represent any danger," Burr and Daugherty said.
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'We like to move faster than that'
A 2015 study by University of Louisville researcher Brian Schaefer indicates what happened with Burr and Daugherty – police entering as if they have a no-knock provision when they don't – is not an aberration.
Schaefer spent 21 months shadowing two police units conducting 73 raids connected to drug and gun investigations. While the report uses the pseudonym Bourbonville for the city and police department, the demographics and other descriptors of the "Southern-Midwest" and "vibrant river city" match Louisville.
"Of the 73 search warrant entries observed, every entry involved using a ram to break the door down," Schaefer wrote.
"A detective explained, 'As long as we announce our presence, we are good. We don’t want to give them any time to destroy evidence or grab a weapon, so we go fast and get through the door quick.'"
Schaefer wrote that detectives said they "generally avoid no-knock exemptions because they require additional oversight," even though they weren't difficult to obtain.
"'No-knocks are a hassle,'" one detective said, Schaefer wrote. "It just slows things down. … We like to move faster than that."
Breonna Taylor search warrant
The no-knock search warrant that brought seven LMPD officers to Taylor's apartment door shortly before 1 a.m. March 13 has been criticized locally and nationally.
Police said they requested the warrant as part of a larger narcotics investigation, seeking cash and drugs they suspected Taylor held for Jamarcus Glover, her ex-boyfriend and a convicted drug trafficker.
Officers said they decided not to use the no-knock provision and knocked on Taylor's door, shouting, "Police!" Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her, said he never heard police announce themselves.
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When officers forced their way in, Walker fired one shot from his legally owned handgun, which police said struck Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh.
Mattingly and Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison fired back 32 times, hitting Taylor, who wasn't armed, six times, killing her.
No cash or drugs were recovered from her apartment.
The Courier Journal's review of 22 no-knock warrants, including for Taylor's apartment, showed five were connected to drug raids March 13 centered on the West End.
The no-knock provisions were needed, officers said, because the suspects had a history of destroying evidence. They mentioned cameras that could "compromise detectives" as they approached.
There were no surveillance cameras at Taylor’s apartment.
The search warrant for her home may be part of an FBI investigation into her shooting. The judge who signed the warrant said she's concerned an LMPD detective may have lied to obtain it.
After the Louisville Metro Council voted to ban the use of no-knock warrants in June, several states, including Kentucky, filed bills that would outlaw them. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., filed similar legislation in Congress.
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When Black residents stop trusting police
Reynolds, the head of the Louisville Urban League, said the problem illustrated by no-knock warrants isn't simply that police are focusing more on Black communities.
It's also the tactics officers use in those communities, using no-knock warrants or aggressive methods instead of knocking and announcing in the middle of the day or calling a suspect's attorney.
"They're training officers to be afraid of us," Reynolds said. "They're training officers to be afraid of Black residents."
In 2019, a Courier Journal series showed police used traffic stops in the West End to roust motorists for minor violations as a way to try to find drugs and guns.
According to the Courier Journal’s analysis of 130,999 Louisville traffic stops resulting in citations from 2016 to 2018, Black motorists were stopped more often and were three times as likely to be searched as white drivers.
The practice was halted after the Courier Journal reported that Tae-Ahn Lee, 18, was searched, handcuffed and detained for making a "wide turn," which infuriated Black residents and Metro Council members who watched the stop captured on officers' body cameras.
Scott, the Kentucky state representative, said there are many steps to restoring community trust in police, including "a deep reckoning with the history of policing" and how it impacts Black Americans.
"We could reallocate some of the money we spend on policing to affordable housing, to access to fresh foods, to a more robust public transportation system, to mental health services, to so much more of what people need in west Louisville," she said, "rather than to continue to fund a system that was never designed for us and continues to act disproportionately toward us."
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More than two years after SWAT broke into their home, Burr and Daugherty said, the raid still impacts their family.
"Little things bring the nightmare back, like knocks on the door," they said. "The children were ashamed and embarrassed because they felt like people would think they were criminals or did something wrong."
That's something, they said, no amount of money can ever restore.
Follow Matt Mencarini on Twitter: @MattMencarini. Tessa Duvall: @TessaDuvall. Darcy Costello: @dctello.
How the Courier Journal reported this story
The Courier Journal reviewed thousands of unsealed search warrants for Jefferson County in 2019 and the first eight months of 2020 in search of court-approved “no-knock” warrants the Louisville Metro Police Department obtained before the city banned their use.
Reporters collected information from 806 Jefferson County search warrants from 2019, including who was targeted and where; when the warrant was obtained; race and gender information of the suspects listed; and details about the investigation described in the warrant affidavit. Not all warrants listed race and gender for each suspect.
Through that search and discovery in a criminal case, the Courier Journal obtained 22 no-knock search warrants LMPD obtained in 2019-20. In May, former Police Chief Steve Conrad told Metro Council the department had obtained at least 27 such warrants, although he cautioned his numbers may not be comprehensive. The newspaper found an additional no-knock warrant obtained by the Kentucky State Police.
The Courier Journal's examination collected information about the listed suspects’ criminal histories and cases connected to the search warrants. And it looked at what police found in those searches and the justification they gave in asking a judge to approve the no-knock provision.
Additionally, The Courier Journal interviewed policing and racial justice experts and reviewed LMPD’s internal investigative records from the Breonna Taylor case and other public records.