Orlando Cops’ Fatal ‘Knock and Talk’ Tactic Leads to Lawsuit

Orlando
police take the alleged sale of marijuana in their city very
seriously. They use a tactic called “knock and talk,” where cops
try to get residents to open their doors voluntarily so they can
snoop around for evidence of wrongdoing. Sounds kind of skeevy,
right?

Now a knock and talk that involved eight officers and ended with
a fatal police shootings is
yielding a lawsuit for the Orlando Police Department. Last
January, cops responded to a tip about marijuana being sold by
attempting a “knock and talk” that involved them peering through a
porch window. Police say they saw a gun through the window, and
that when 19-year-old Karvas Gamble Jr. reached for it, a cop
fatally shot him in the abdomen. It was the second fatal police
shooting for Orlando cops in 24 hours. Eventually, an appeals court
ruled that cops can’t enter porches, or backyards or patios for
that matter, without permission or a warrant, but while a grand
jury found the “knock and talk” poorly planned, it
declined to charge cops with any crime.

Now a lawsuit over the incident is being planned by the Florida
Civil Rights Association, which has already notified the city of
its intent, as required by law. The association’s argument,

via the Orlando Sentinel:

“During the ‘Knock and Talk’ event, OPD officers did
not simply walk up to the front door, knock, and speak with
whomever answered the door. They instead surrounded the structure,
hid in the backyard, looked inside windows, and were in places they
had no lawful right to be,” the Florida Civil Rights Association
stated in a news release.

More evidence of the destructiveness of the war on drugs, and the
need for
stricter police standards.