Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford asks for protesters to rally peacefully during a press conference at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, Sunday, May 31, 2020.
Sunday, March 7, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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CARSON CITY — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is still troubled when he hears the name of a woman killed by police who barged unannounced with a “no-knock warrant” into her Louisville, Ky., apartment as she slept one night a year ago.
“Breonna Taylor’s killing hurt, it hurt the entire community,” Ford told the Sun last week. “It especially resonated with Black men and women, because it’s yet another example in a long line of circumstances where Black men and women are killed at the hands of law enforcement, oftentimes wrongly.”
Taylor’s death galvanized Ford’s office to introduce Nevada Senate Bill 50, which would put stringent limits on how no-knock warrants are issued, allowing for them only under critical circumstances. The effort does not ban them altogether.
During a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month at the Nevada Legislature, Ford acknowledged that state law enforcement’s use of such warrants is “extremely rare.”
Metro Police’s policy states that “no-knock search warrants are prohibited except in limited circumstances for life safety and when other tactical options have been considered and deemed unsafe.”
North Las Vegas Police opt for a “knock and announce” strategy, unless “doing so would place officers in great physical peril,” a spokesman said. A Henderson Police spokeswoman said the department doesn’t use them.
“Nevada’s police have done a good job on policing themselves on the use of no-knock warrants,” Ford told lawmakers. “However, the restraint we have seen exercised here is the result of internal policy, not law.”
The proposed legislation would protect both civilians and officers, who can also be at risk while conducting surprise entries, Ford said.
In petitioning courts for a no-knock warrant, the bill would require law enforcement to detail to a judge the investigation; if there is imminent public danger; why the warrant can’t be executed in daytime hours; if the alleged felon has a propensity for violence or escaping; “certify” that a less intrusive process isn’t possible and reassess at the scene the need for the warrant, according to the legislation.
Officers who execute the warrants would need to be “trained in tactical or dynamic entry operations” and, when possible, wear body cameras.
The bill hit a snag when a provision in an amended version, which could disqualify evidence gathered during the warrant if the guidelines aren’t followed, was introduced.
The Clark County District Attorney’s Office and the Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association changed their stance from supporters to neutral.
Ford said his office was scheduled to meet this week with stakeholders, police agencies, prosecutors and several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada — which had called for the outright banning of no-knock warrants — to try to iron out a compromise and “come out with the best bill possible.”
Asked if an agreement is possible in which all the parties are satisfied, Ford said he didn’t know.
“I don’t choose a side,” he said. “I’m on the side of justice. … What I’m trying to pursue through the passage of the no-knock warrant bill is justice for the constituents who look to us for protection.
“At the end of the day, as long as we have a bill that’s accomplishing that, I’m less concerned about a unanimous decision more than I am of a just one.”
Ford’s bill proposals
Ford’s office submitted 14 bill proposals for consideration to the Legislature, out of the 20 it was allotted.
They include:
• Assembly Bill 58 would require police departments to formally notify the Attorney General’s Office within three days when officers seriously hurt or kill someone. The office would have the ability to investigate, giving it subpoena powers and allowing it to file civil actions “to eliminate certain patterns or practices that deprive persons of certain rights, privileges or immunities.”
• Senate Bill 38 would open up law firms to conduct pro bono work in official state legal affairs, which are currently handled exclusively by the Attorney General’s Office.
“This bill is intended to close that loophole by allowing the Office of the Attorney General to accept high-quality legal services or advice, at no cost to Nevada taxpayers,” wrote Kyle George, Ford’s deputy, to lawmakers.
• Senate Bill 37 would let district attorneys request help from the Attorney General’s Office for criminal cases, circumventing the process in which county commissions would need to approve (unless there are fees related to the help) allowing investigations to be debated publicly, and put the investigation target on alert, George wrote to legislators.
• Senate Bill 46 would provide privacy protections to lawyers in the Attorney General’s Office to deter “doxing,” when someone’s publicly available information is put out online, allowing that person to be threatened.
Race and policing
Ford spoke about the intersection of his ethnicity and his role as the top law enforcement officer in the state.
“I was a Black man before I was attorney general, I’m a Black man as attorney general and I’m a Black man after I’m attorney general,” he said. “I’m a Black man married to a Black wife, raising three Black sons and a Black nephew.
“So, we’ve experienced race in this country our entire lives.”
He believes he can speak to police-community issues with authority and “credibility” to “bridge the gap,” he said.
He noted that in his “Justice and Injustice” panels following the deaths of Taylor in Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis, many of the law enforcement officials were receptive to the invitation, and some didn’t wait for one to reach out. He said he has very positive relationships with some, and knows they want to improve the system.
Police practices and their relationships with their communities can always improve, he said. “Any person looking at the system objectively, I believe, would come to that conclusion.”
Surely, the deaths of Taylor and Floyd, who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck, produced reckoning and calls for police reform, but it’s not the first time it’s happened, Ford said.
The key to the moment is to not be complacent. “I’m hopeful that complacency does not seep into the opportunity for progress here,” he said.
“I’m undeterred,” he said about his office’s efforts. “At the end of the day, I recognize that we have a finite amount of time in the position that I’m in to try to effectuate real positive change, and I intend to do that.”
