Despite growing pressure to ditch or restrict them, no-knock warrants are here to stay in Arizona, though they remain rare.
A taskforce to study no-knock warrants, or unannounced entry warrants as they are called in Arizona law, authorized by the state Supreme Court last year recommended only minor changes to existing state law around no-knock warrants, and a proposal in the legislature to ban no-knock warrants couldn’t even advance to a vote.
No-knock warrants are used extremely rarely by law enforcement in the Valley. Data from the Maricopa County Superior Court showed that among recorded non-DUI warrants in fiscal year 2020-21, only 40 of 2,453, or 1.6%, were issued as unannounced entry warrants.
