NCJ Number
155830
Journal
Columbia Law Review Volume: 93 Issue: 3 Dated: (April 1993) Pages: 685-719
Date Published
1993
Length
35 pages
Annotation
A number of courts have recently adopted a blanket rule allowing police armed with valid search warrants to knock down the front doors of homes and rush inside with guns drawn when the object of the search is drugs and the home has a toilet; the rationale for this position, despite the Fourth Amendment search and seizure rules, is that suspects frequently destroy evidence before the police enter.
Abstract
This article traces the common law history, purpose and constitutionalization of the knock and announce rule and highlights the ambiguity arising over what circumstances trigger the destruction-of-evidence exception. The second section demonstrates how the war on drugs, by encouraging a blanket exception to the rule, threatens to overwhelm it, while the particularity approach, which narrowly focuses on individual liberty, undermines effective drug law enforcement. The author suggests a new legal framework to determine when an unannounced entry violates the unreasonable search standard and provides a mechanism for police to develop cost-effective alternatives that will further the objectives of drug law enforcement without jeopardizing individual protection. 208 notes