Tennessee Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Banning No-Knock Warrants

The Tennessee Senate has unanimously passed a police use of force bill: SB 1380. Given my work on the Breonna Taylor case, I’m most heartened to see that it contains a complete ban on no-knock warrants:

A magistrate shall not issue a “no knock” search warrant, which expressly authorizes a peace officer to dispense with the requirement to knock and announce the peace officer’s presence prior to execution of the warrant.

The bill also states that

Use of a choke hold, with or without the use of a police baton, must be taught to candidates at state law enforcement training facilities as a method of restraint to be used only if the officer reasonably believes that deadly force is authorized pursuant to § 39- 11-620.

Finally, the bill has provisions mandating de-escalation training and creating a duty to intervene when a police officers sees another officer using excessive force.

-CM