Crime & Law
Revised CPD Policy Won’t Ban No-Knock Warrants or Block Officers From Pointing Guns at Kids, But Will Tighten Restrictions on Raids
Anjanette Young and her attorney Keenan Saulter speak outside the James R. Thompson Center on June 16, 2021. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)
Chicago police officers would not be banned from serving no-knock warrants or from pointing guns at children or handcuffing them during raids under a revised Chicago Police Department policy that will impose additional limits on how search warrants are used in Chicago, records show.
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is overseeing the federal court order known as the consent decree that requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, praised the revised policy as an example of what can be achieved through the reform push during a virtual hearing Tuesday.
“We have made progress through collaboration, even though the process can be combative,” Pallmeyer said. “What we’re doing does make a difference.”
WTTW News and ProPublica reported in November that the reform effort was at a tipping point, with advocates for police reform losing faith in the process and increasingly concerned the opportunity for lasting reform is slipping away.
The consent decree expanded in March 2022 to include the issue of search warrants amid the political firestorm touched off in December 2020 when CBS2-TV aired video of officers raiding the home of Anjanette Young, a social worker who was handcuffed while naked during a botched raid in February 2019.
Since that video put CPD’s use of search warrants in the spotlight, officials have significantly revised the department’s policy five times under intense pressure from Young, a coalition of groups advocating for police reform and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
Pallmeyer declined to ban officers from executing warrants to search for evidence of minor offenses, to ban officers from pointing guns at people during raids or to require that officers wait for a minimum amount of time before making forced entry into a home or apartment at the request of the coalition.
City lawyers and police brass fought those demands for more than three years.
CPD’s revised search warrant policy, which is not yet final, includes a provision “acknowledging search warrants are a traumatic experience” and directs officers to exercise caution and use tactics designed “to minimize potential trauma and minimize intrusion and damage to homes and property.”
No-knock warrants, which allow officers to enter a home without first announcing their presence, must be approved by a deputy chief and can only be used in cases where there is a documented “danger to life or safety.” The revised policy does not change that provision.
Unless it is an emergency, officers will only be allowed to serve warrants between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., under the revised policy.
Officers will also be required to “avoid handcuffing or intentionally pointing firearm at children unless reasonably necessary,” according to the revised policy.
Assistant Attorney General Michael Tresnowski told Pallmeyer those cases should be “exceedingly rare.”
The revised policy gives CPD a chance to ensure that it never again serves search warrants in a “harmful and careless manner,” Tresnowski said.
“The power to raid someone’s home is tremendous,” Tresnowski said. “It must be used responsibly.”
In addition, the policy requires officers to knock and announce that they have a search warrant and give the residents “a reasonable opportunity to comply.”
Had that policy been in place in February 2019, Young would have had a chance to finish getting dressed after arriving home from work before officers burst into her apartment, looking for someone who did not live there.
Young told WTTW News that she had “mixed feelings” about the revised policy during the hearing, but planned to keep advocating for a city ordinance and state law to ban no-knock warrants and for other restrictions on raids.
“A policy may be great, but what happens when it is violated?” Young asked. “I want tangible change for the community.”
The coalition of police reform groups urged CPD to require officers to wait at least 30 seconds before entering a home with a search warrant if they do not get an immediate response.
Since 2019, the number of homes searched by CPD dropped nearly 85%, according to CPD data.
Officers served just 210 residential search warrants in 2024. In comparison, the department executed 1,382 search warrants in 2019.
Young said that drop is good news, especially for Black and Latino Chicagoans, who have been disproportionately targeted by CPD raids.
Approximately 72% of all search warrants served by CPD officers between 2017 and 2020 targeted Black men, according to a 2021 audit by the Office of the Inspector General.
Young said it was deeply frustrating to hear CPD praise itself for the reduction in the number of search warrants served since 2019 during the hearing before Pallmeyer.
“CPD was patting themselves on the back for these changes, like they did it voluntarily,” Young said. “The community did this.”
At the same time as the number of search warrants served by CPD plummeted, violent crime dropped significantly across the city, returning to pre-pandemic levels, data shows.
That proves that CPD served too many warrants for no real public safety gain, Young said.
The city of Chicago paid Young $2.9 million to resolve a lawsuit she filed over the raid.
The soon-to-be-finalized policy requires officers to be “courteous, dignified and respectful” during raids. In addition, officers must respect the gender identity and religious beliefs of all people present during a raid and an officer trained to respond to people in crisis must be present, according to the revised policy.
In addition, officers must verify the information used to develop a search warrant prior to its execution. Officers will also be required to document all search warrants and report incidents if the wrong location is raided, according to the revised policy.
That data is especially “crucial,” Pallmeyer said.
“It will help us understand what is actually happening,” Pallmeyer said.
During the 2023 mayoral election, Young endorsed Mayor Brandon Johnson, who vowed to “end no-knock warrants once and for all” in his campaign platform.
Johnson has yet to introduce such a measure but has been working behind the scenes to craft a proposal that has the support of Young and can win the approval of the City Council, said Ald. Maria Hadden (49th Ward).
The effort has been too slow, Hadden said.
“But perhaps we are moving in the right direction,” Hadden said.
Despite that progress, state Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) said he would continue to push the General Assembly to pass a law that would ban no-knock warrants and impose other restrictions on raids. A proposed bill stalled this spring after passing the Judiciary-Criminal Committee in the House.
“I had to step in when the city refused to show up,” Buckner said. “The city had made promises, and this should be handled by the city.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
