No-Knock warrants

If you are a gun blogger, you've read this by now...Short version: Someone sends a fed-ex package with 30+ pounds of pot to the Mayor's wife. Police intercept then deliver the package. When the mayor brings the package inside, Police do a no-knock warrant and shoot his dogs, then track dog blood all over the house. Police now say the mayor is innocent, and the package was part of a scheme with the Fed-Ex driver implicated. Police took several days to even apologize.

Something needs to be done about paramilitary tactics and no-knock warrants.

To some extent, it is understandable that they would be overused--We expect police to aggressively and effectively fight crime, and no-knocks are useful to police. Whether they are justified is another story.

So what should we do? The simple answer is to eliminate no-knocks, but that isn't realistic--There are some (albeit relatively rare) cases where they are needed and justified.

• Police should be responsible for damages, including professional cleanup under almost all circumstances, to give them more incentive to minimize damage. Family pets are worth substantially more than "book value"--Enough that officers don't routinely shoot them.
• We have the technology at a reasonable price for each officer to have a video camera. This should be mandatory, with exclusionary penalties if the cameras 'oops, didn't work'. (Unless the "didn't work" was provably engineered by the target)
• There needs to be a clear and compelling reason why some other method can't be used--Preservation of evidence is rarely justification. Judges are to blame here. We possibly need specific judges to handle no-knocks, so police can't judge-shop.

We also need to understand that SWAT teams may be necessary even if they are rarely used. Police shouldn't be required to use the teams regularly to maintain the SWAT budget.