Houston PD will end most no-knock warrants after botched drug raid

"The no-knock warrants are going to go away like leaded gasoline in this city," declared Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo at a town hall meeting after police killed two people (along with two dogs) and four officers were shot while serving a search warrant, reported the Houston Chronicle.

The chief said he no longer "sees the value" in such raids, which were criticized earlier this month in a Texas Monthly story. In the future, said Acevedo, HPD won't use the tactic in most instances, and in the rare cases it is needed, it will require his personal approval.

That would be a big deal if he follows through with it. Here's hoping the announcement isn't just a short-term media stunt. Indeed, one hopes the Texas Legislature might look at requiring chief-level sign off for all "dynamic entry" episodes. God knows, this is an issue statewide, not just in Houston.

SWAT-style raids aren't the only policy area where reforms are implied by this clusterf&#k. Grits earlier identified an open-records exemption that keeps police misconduct secret at HPD. And Acevedo declared the department would roll out a new body-camera policy in the coming weeks. Officers in the raid weren't wearing bodycams and the incident wasn't recorded.

Finally, reforms are needed in the murky world of undercover drug enforcement. There probably needs to be more internal monitoring of informants used to secure search-or-arrest warrants, including keeping records of whether their information holds up. Another needed change: informants should be afforded a right to counsel whenever police use them to make cases against others. That would both protect them from having their rights abused, and provide a barrier to police faking informant testimony to secure probable cause, as allegedly occurred in this case.