Local Policing Affects National Policing Standard
Image by Xavier Burrell for The New York Times
Tragically, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky Metro Police Officers conducting a “no-knock” warrant at her home on March 13, 2020. In the aftermath, crucial discussions and debriefs are essential to identifying where enforcement officials can improve practices and eliminate avoidable tragedies. Police officials can learn from what happened in Louisville and apply those lessons to police department operations. That learning cannot occur in the silo of internal police department decision-making.
No-knock warrants are an inherently high-risk and high-liability arrest service. The use of these warrants had justifiably come under heavy scrutiny following the killing of Breonna Taylor, and more recently, in the police killing of Amir Locke in February 2020. Currently, 29 states and 21 cities restrict the use of no-knock warrants. Thirteen additional states are considering restrictions. Four states ban using no-knock warrants. No clear national standard or guiding law precedent exists on how no-knock warrants should be used. State-by-state debates result in inconsistent decisions. This use of no-knock warrants ranks among other questionable police use of force practices with inherent life and death implications.
Most American policing is based on local community dynamics, uniqueness, and needs. Most policing tactics and practices, however, have nationwide implications. Local government, police officials, and community leaders must analyze and debate policing policies and methods, in a context that would impact anyone remaining in and passing through their community. The lessons we learn locally in American policing are the lessons for the nation. Collective wisdom leads to standardized, trustworthy, and human-dignified policing services in all American states and territories.
There is a mandate of municipal leadership to prevent tragic outcomes in our communities. Accountability for failures should not be ignored, minimized, or shifted solely to the bearing of offending police officers. Police leadership must be involved but should not hold exclusive ownership for developing and improving policies and procedures surrounding high-risk, high-liability operations. Police officials must avail themselves of critical and constructive input from subject matter experts and community leaders locally and nationwide. Community members are owed a duty of ongoing oversight by servant leaders who ensure relevant, safe, and progressive policing practices anchored in high compliance and publicly endorsed accountability standards.
