In 2012, law enforcement officials barged into the home of Matthew David Stewart. Shortly thereafter, we began talking publicly about the need for warrant reform. We also wrote a policy brief explaining our position in depth.
According to one estimate, roughly 40,000 SWAT or tactical raids are conducted around the country each year—over 100 per day. In most cases, officers detain the suspects and seize the desired evidence without harm to themselves or those present in the home they entered. But in too many cases, something goes wrong and somebody—in many cases an innocent person—gets hurt, or worse, killed. Utah is not an exception to this trend.
We helped draft legislation that began to clamp down on these high-risk warrants and excessive use of law enforcement violence in response to minor crimes. The resulting bill changed how forcible entry warrants were authorized and executed, and introduced additional caution into the process by requiring law enforcement officers to use “only that force which is reasonable and necessary” to arrest a suspect or search his or her property. It also raised the evidentiary standard for forcible entry in certain circumstances from reasonable suspicion to probable cause.
This kickstarted a series of successful legislative reforms spearheaded by Libertas Institute, ultimately drawing national attention for the “Unlikeliest State in the Nation” to be clamping down on law enforcement.
