NCJ Number
168700
Journal
Crime to Court Police Officers' Handbook Dated: (August 1997) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1997
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the findings of the U.S. Supreme Court in Richards v. Wisconsin (1997) regarding an exemption to the knock-and-announce rule for executing a warrant, and information is provided on school crime and school security.
Abstract
In Richards v. Wisconsin, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court that police officers are never required to knock and announce in a felony drug investigation. Although the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Wisconsin Supreme Court's blanket exception to the no-knock requirement in drug cases, the Court held that the circumstances of this particular case justified a no-knock exception. Under the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings, no-knock entry can be justified if police have a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances of a case, would be dangerous or futile, or that it would inhibit the effective investigation of the crime by, for example, allowing for time to destroy evidence. Officers who claim such reasonable suspicion must be able to show facts to support the claim. The procedural section of this article provides an overview of crime in the Nation's schools, with attention to violent deaths in schools, assaults on teachers, bullying, gangs in schools, the fear of being victimized in school, and causes of gun violence in schools. The article concludes with a discussion of factors in school crime and recommended actions for an effective school security officer.