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No-knock warrants in Montgomery County fell sharply; OLO and MCPD point to state changes and layered approvals
Summary
OLO reported that no-knock warrants executed by MCPD dropped from 128 in 2017 to nine in 2023; the department and OLO credited state-law changes and described multi-step approval and SWAT-only execution policies while noting continued rare operational uses for imminent-threat situations.
Aaron Trompka of the Office of Legislative Oversight summarized the report's no-knock sections for the council, saying the number of no-knock warrants has "fallen precipitously from 128 in 2017 to 9 in 2023." Trompka attributed the decline in part to state-law changes that narrowed the categories of investigations eligible for no-knock applications.
The OLO briefing included demographic detail related to the nine no-knock entries in 2023: OLO said it reviewed 53 people present across those nine warrants and reported that 39 of the 53 were Black and that ages ranged from 2 to 73 with most between 18 and 40.
MCPD officials described the departmentapproval and execution process for no-knock warrants as multi-layered. Captain Nicholas Picerno and other department leaders said no-knock applications go through detective, supervisory and executive review, require signed approval by the Montgomery County state's attorney, and must then be authorized by a judge before execution. Picerno said that even when a no-knock warrant is authorized, circumstances can change and officers may choose to execute it as a knock-and-announce entry if imminent risks dissipate.
MCPD emphasized that only trained SWAT officers execute no-knock entries; other officers may participate in perimeter or follow-up tasks but do not make the dynamic entry. The department said it has full-time SWAT personnel that train together, an operational model the department argued supports limited tactical deployments in high-risk circumstances.
Council members pressed for more detail on how often the state's attorney's office denies or conditions no-knock approvals and asked whether non-SWAT officers have participated historically. MCPD said many requests are resolved before reaching the state's attorney (through early supervisory review) and that denials by the state's attorney are rare in the described period, though attorneys may instruct clarifications in the application. The department also reiterated that when a no-knock is authorized, operational decisions are reviewed and that field events sometimes eliminate the need for a no-knock execution.
The committee did not adopt policy changes during the session; members said they welcomed the data and that council oversight will continue as MCPD finalizes the planned policy revision and expands public engagement on the topic.
