Pinellas Sheriff Announces Changes To Search Warrant Policies

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — In the wake of the controversial fatal shooting of a Louisville, Kentucky, emergency medical technical while police were serving a search warrant, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced this week that his office has formally adopted a search warrant policy intended to prevent similar tragedies.

He said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office implemented search warrant practices eight years ago to avoid outcomes like the one that occurred March 13 in Louisville.

Gualtieri said those practices are now part of a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office General Order, which all deputies are mandated to follow.

The order states that all search warrants must be carried out "in a manner that ensures the safety of citizens, law enforcement officers and offenders. The policies and procedures put into place are to diminish the potential for harm to everyone involved."

"No amount of drugs is worth anyone's life, whether it's a law enforcement officer or a suspect," Gualtieri said.

He said this is among a number of changes his office is making during these "evolving times with changing circumstances and certainly with changing community expectations."

"We have, and we will continue to evaluate how we police toward achieving everyone's common goal of maintaining a community that has as little crime as possible," Gualtieri said.

EMT Breonna Taylor, 26 was fatally shot by plainclothes officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department after they entered her apartment to execute a search warrant without knocking.

Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was in the apartment with Taylor and said he thought the officers were intruders. Walker exchanged gunfire with the officers. Taylor, who was a bystander during the gunfire, died after being struck by eight bullets.

Police later said Taylor's apartment was included in the search warrant because Taylor previously dated a man who was suspected of selling drugs. No drugs were found in Taylor's apartment.