PA Superior Court: Suppression Required if Police Don’t Knock and Announce

Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Goodis, holding that the trial court should have granted the defendant’s motion to suppress because the evidence overwhelmingly showed that the police failed to “knock and announce” prior to entering the defendant’s house to execute a search warrant. The consequences to the government of a failure to knock and announce are very different in Pennsylvania and federal courts. In federal court, a knock and announce violation does not lead to suppression. But in Pennsylvania state court, a violation of the knock and announce rule requires that the trial court suppress the evidence.

The Facts of Goodis

In Goodis, the defendant had been convicted of various counts relating to the possession and distribution of child pornography in state court. Prior to trial, he moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that police failed to knock and announce before entering his house to execute a search warrant. The trial court denied the motion, finding that the police acted too quickly but were justified in relying on concerns of officer safety. The defendant appealed.

What is the knock and announce rule?

The knock and announce rule requires police to knock on the door, wait a little bit, and announce their identity, purpose, and authority before entering. Generally, this is accomplished by the police knocking, yelling something along the lines of “police, open up, search warrant,” and then giving the occupant of the building a little bit of time to respond. If the police obtain a no-knock warrant or hear something that suggests the person inside is attempting to flee, grab a weapon, or destroy evidence, then police may dispense with the knock and announce requirement. They also generally do not have to wait very long. But they do have to knock, announce, and give the occupant of the building some time to open the door before they break in.

It is notable that the appellate court may have had some doubts about the defendant’s actual guilt. Even after the trial court denied the motion to suppress, the defense was able to show at trial that police had damaged the hard drive which allegedly contained the child pornography, and he called expert witnesses who testified that the contraband could have been placed there by someone accessing his wireless network which was unsecured at the time. The police also did not find a large quantity of contraband images and videos. In many cases, they find thousands of images and videos. In this case, they only found a few.

The Superior Court’s Ruling

On appeal, the defendant challenged the trial judge’s ruling on the motion to suppress. Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 207 and Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution require that police, before entering a dwelling to execute a search warrant, announce their identity, purpose and authority and give the occupant a reasonable period of time after such announcement to let them in, unless exigent circumstances require immediate forcible entry. The purposes of this requirement, known as the “knock and announce rule,” are to prevent resistance by an occupant protecting his dwelling, to prevent violence and physical injury to the police and occupants, to protect an occupant’s privacy expectation against the unauthorized entry, and to prevent property damage resulting from forced entry. The knock and announce rule is not limited to entry that involves breaking down a door or damage to the dwelling; it applies to any entry into a dwelling without the occupant’s permission, including entry through an unlocked door. Moreover, even where police knock and clearly announce their identity as police, failure to announce their purpose before entering the premises violates Rule 207 and Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and suppression is required unless exigent circumstances for the failure to announce are shown.

The Commonwealth must prove compliance with the rule or that one of four exceptions applied. The exceptions are: 1) that the occupants fail to respond after repeated knocking and announcing; 2) that the police are virtually certain that the occupants already know their purpose; 3) that the police have reason to believe that an announcement prior to entry would imperil their safety; or 4) that the police have reason to believe that evidence is about to be destroyed.

Here, the trial court had found that the police announced their presence but did not announce their purpose or wait for a long enough time for the defendant to let them in the house. The court ruled, however, that the police acted with exigent circumstances because they believed that the defendant could have posed a threat to officer safety. On appeal, the defendant argued that this officer safety exception should not have applied.

The Superior Court reviewed the transcripts from the hearing as well as the body camera videos which were introduced by the parties. The videos showed that the police knocked, the defendant walked to the window and put up a finger, signaling that they should wait a second, and then he went out of view to get dressed. Before he got dressed, the police knocked the door down and then held him at gunpoint. The Commonwealth had argued that he could have been trying to destroy evidence or grab a weapon when he went out of view, but the Superior Court rejected this argument. The Court concluded that there was no reason to believe the defendant posed a threat to officer safety where the police were investigating a serious but non-violent crime, the defendant came to the door, signaled to the police for them to give him a second, and then the defendant appeared to be getting dressed. This is particularly true given that the police had not told him to come back or open the door immediately. Indeed, they did not announce their purpose at all. The defendant even appeared to say “hold on a second,” and one of the officers responded, “OK, all right.” As the officer agreed, the defendant had no reason not to believe it was okay for him to get dressed before opening the door. Thus, the officers did not have any objective reason to believe that there was an issue of officer safety that would eliminate the requirement of announcing their purpose.

The Superior Court therefore ordered that the evidence should be suppressed. The defendant will receive a new trial, and the Commonwealth will likely be unable to proceed.

The case shows the importance of carefully reviewing body cam footage before trial and understanding the differences between state and federal court. Without the body cam footage, the defendant would have had a very hard time convincing a panel of appellate judges that the police did not have legitimate officer safety concerns. He would have been left only with their testimony and limited ways in which to contradict it. Further, in federal court, the remedy for a knock and announce violation is not suppression. Instead, a defendant can sue the police, which does not do them much good while they are in prison serving a sentence for distribution of child pornography.

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