SAPD Chief Limits No-Knock Policy

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus limited the use of so-called no-knock warrants in mid-June in response to the protests and calls for reforms in policing after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. However, the new limitations endanger police officers and help criminals escape.

No-knock warrants are used to search for evidence and to make arrests. They have been used primarily for potential violent offenders in narcotics cases, high-risk cases involving murder, aggravated assault cases, and sexual assault suspects.

These are dangerous situations. More officers are shot while serving warrants than in any other type of line of duty.

Suspects will know that police have arrived and will have an opportunity to surrender quietly, flee, or fight.

Nevertheless, as of Monday, August 24, SAPD Chief McManus announced that no-knock search warrants are "completely off the table." No-knock arrest warrants will be used only where "exigent circumstances pose a serious safety risk to the general public or officers."

McManus says the decision to suspend the use of no-knock warrants was made to protect the public and officers better and to reduce the potential for violence. However, it came because "Black Lives Matter" radicals and other leftist/liberal politicians and communities want to ban the tactic in which police officers forcibly enter homes without warning to serve warrants. The practice has resulted in some bystanders being injured and killed, and there have been more police officers shot and killed.

This new "ban on no-knock warrants" policy will be yet another public policy that will favor criminals over police and thus help them evade justice. When criminals are excused and justified, and law enforcement officers are punished, society is in peril.