As any defense lawyer worth their salt will tell you, police officers need a search warrant if they want to enter your home to search your property. If they enter your home anyway without a search warrant, their actions will likely be deemed unconstitutional in court. This means that anything that results from that search cannot be used against you, and any related charges must be dropped. For example, if the police search your home without a warrant and find an unlicensed firearm or a bag of illicit drugs, they cannot press charges related to these alleged offenses.
With all that said, “no-knock warrants” allow police to sidestep this important constitutional protection in some situations. The very concept of a no-knock warrant is highly controversial and a matter of intense debate throughout the nation. Critics not only point out the unconstitutionality of these actions, but they also highlight the fact that innocent people can be harmed or even killed by police officers who enter homes and assault alleged suspects. There have been many past instances where victims have been shot or suffocated after a no-knock warrant.
What makes this situation even more controversial in Mississippi is the fact that many search warrants mysteriously go missing after the fact. As a recent report pointed out, this makes scrutinizing the legitimacy of no-knock warrants much more difficult than it needs to be.