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City Council votes to restrict no-knock warrants. 

The resolution, which passed 4-1 at last Tuesday’s meeting, bans the Saratoga Springs Police Department from initiating no-knock warrants to search residences for controlled substances. In addition, the SSPD may initiate these warrants only in extreme cases—when officers detail specific facts in the search warrant application that detail why giving notice would create imminent danger in a person’s life. Addressing the SSPD’s ability to initiate no-knock warrants was one of the 50 recommendations that the City’s Police Reform Task Force, made up of 11 community members, issued as a result of its efforts to improve the deployments, strategies, policies, procedures and practices of the police force. Read the full press release here.