Search Warrants in Southern Oregon
Searches are a risky encounter between police and the public.
Medford and Jackson County law enforcement agencies describe their procedures.
Last week body camera footage of a no-knock search warrant circulated on the news. Minneapolis police officers burst into a room at a pre-dawn hour shouting "police" and "get on the fucking floor." A man was lying on a sofa wrapped in blankets near the front door. He was apparently sleeping with or near a gun and was holding it when police saw him emerge from the blankets. Police saw him and shot him. It took place in ten seconds, start to finish.
The video below repeats the entire event three times, twice in slow motion, once real time. Watch:
That was Minneapolis. Not Southern Oregon.
Oregon outlaws "no-knock" searches. Police for the City of Medford, Oregon and the Sheriff's Department of Jackson County work together in a variety of crime task forces. Therefore, many of their searches are done with joint personnel. The majority of their searches are drug related. Some are stolen property cases. There were 71 child pornography searches done last year in Jackson County.
Here is the protocol in Southern Oregon:
1. Searches are done during daylight.
2. Searches "knock and announce." Police arrive at the scene with marked police cars and flashing lights. They ring doorbells, knock on doors, and announce themselves. They give "reasonable" time for a person at the search site to come to the door. The goal is for people at the search site to be certain the people demanding entry are in fact the police.
3. When searching a place with a known dangerous person inside, they employ a "surround and call out" procedure. Police monitor back exits and other escapes routes.
4. Search officers are in uniform.
5. They wear body cameras.
6. They show up in force. The number of officers depend on the situation but six officers are common. They appear at the site with guns in the "low, ready" position, which means guns are exposed, drawn, and pointed down.
7. They coordinate in advance who will be giving commands so that people at the search scene don't get conflicting commands with one officer shouting "freeze," a second shouting "show me your hands," and a third shouting "get down on the floor."
8. A supervisor is present.
This is both goal and practice, according to the public information officers of both agencies. Reality on the ground and in the moment may require something different, and errors sometime occur. Sometimes searches are done at night if there is a hostage situation or some other exigent matter. Night searches take a special court order.
The City of Medford representative attempted to distinguish local searches from the one in Minneapolis, and emphasized the careful controls on searches here. The Jackson County Sergeant representing the department immediately told me that the department has no comment on the Minneapolis search. He said Jackson County has procedures in place to carry out a legal and safe search, but that every search situation was different. He cautioned I should not pin the department down with details on how searches were done, lest I "trap" the department by creating false expectations. Still, the descriptions of both City and County searches were essentially the same, as described above.
My overall impression from both City and County is that both search officers and the public experience a higher level of safety than we saw in Minneapolis. The goal in searches here isn't surprise. The goal is to have the people at the searched location know that police are there in force and that they have a job to carry out. Resistance would be dangerous, pointless, and illegal. A citizen would have time and clear evidence to understand this reality. A Southern Oregon citizen is not going to be awakened at night, surprised by an invading burst of people shouting multiple commands. No need to grab a gun.