Connect with us

Police

Louisville Metro Police’s no knock warrants often targeted Black residents, analysis reportedly shows

Louisville Metro Police’s no knock warrant disproportionately targeted Black residents, an analysis by The Courier Journal shows.

unheard voices magazine profile logo

Published

on

Louisville No knock warrants police
Photo by Kindel Media: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-police-vehicle-7785098/

Louisville Metro Police disproportionately targeted Black residents living in the West End for “no-knock” search warrants .

Analysis on Louisville no-knock warrants

Purportedly, just like the one that led officers to Breonna Taylor’s door the night they fatally shot her, a Courier Journal analysis has found.

In the past two years (before the city banned them in June), LMPD says its 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 a reasonable amount of time for residents to respond, usually around 30 seconds.

Racially disproportionate

A Courier Journal analysis of 22 of those warrants (several remain sealed by a judge) showed 82% of the listed suspects were Black and 68% were for addresses in the city’s West End.

The no-knock warrants comprise a fraction of the thousands of search warrants Louisville Metro Police Department serves each year. In 2019 alone, the department said it conducted more than 3,000 court-authorized searches.

But The Courier Journal’s findings echo the concerns of civil rights advocates and experts who say no-knock warrants across the U.S. more frequently are used against Black and brown Americans.

Read more on The Courier Journal


Discover more from Unheard Voices Magazine

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Unheard Voices, an award-winning, family-operated online news magazine, began in 2004 as a community newsletter serving Neptune, Asbury Park, and Long Branch, N.J. Over time, it grew into a nationally recognized Black-owned media outlet. The publication remains one of the few dedicated to covering social justice issues. Its honors include the NAACP Unsung Hero Award and multiple media innovator awards for excellence in social justice reporting and communications.

Archives

Tags

unheard voices shop
unheard voices on google play unheard voices on itunes

Trending