## Facts

- Federal and local officers obtained a warrant to search Lashawn Lowell Banks’s apartment for cocaine.
- Officers knocked, announced “police search warrant,” and waited about 15–20 seconds without receiving any response.
- Officers then forced entry by breaking the door.
- Banks was in the shower and later asserted he did not hear the knock-and-announce until the door crashed.
- The search uncovered drugs and weapons.
- Banks moved to suppress the evidence, alleging the entry violated the Fourth Amendment knock-and-announce requirement and 18 U.S.C. § 3109.
- The district court denied suppression; Banks pleaded guilty while reserving the right to appeal the suppression ruling.
- The Ninth Circuit reversed and ordered suppression, applying a structured approach that effectively required a longer delay or an explicit refusal absent exigent circumstances.

## Issues

1. Whether forcing entry 15–20 seconds after knocking and announcing, while executing a search warrant for cocaine and receiving no response, violates the Fourth Amendment.
2. Whether the same entry violates 18 U.S.C. § 3109’s requirement that officers may break a door only after being “refused admittance.”

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit and reinstated the denial of suppression.
- The Court held that the 15–20 second wait before forcible entry was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment in the circumstances.
- The Court held the entry complied with 18 U.S.C. § 3109 because silence after a reasonable wait in these circumstances can amount to constructive refusal.
- The Court rejected a rigid time requirement or categorical demand for an explicit refusal; the inquiry is case-specific and objective.

## Legal Principles

- Reasonableness in executing a search warrant, including the timing of entry after knock-and-announce, is judged under the totality of circumstances known to officers at the time.
- The standards for entering after knock-and-announce align with the standards for dispensing with knock-and-announce when officers reasonably suspect futility or exigency (including imminent destruction of evidence).
- When the warrant targets easily disposable narcotics, officers may reasonably infer that delay risks destruction of evidence, which can justify a relatively brief wait before forced entry.
- The reasonableness analysis is objective; it does not turn on the occupant’s actual location, activities, or whether the occupant in fact heard the announcement.
- Under 18 U.S.C. § 3109, “refused admittance” includes constructive refusal inferred from silence after a reasonable wait, particularly where circumstances support a reasonable suspicion that evidence will be destroyed.

## Conclusion

The Court held that officers executing a cocaine search warrant acted reasonably by forcing entry after a 15–20 second knock-and-announce with no response, and that the same circumstances satisfied § 3109 because silence after a reasonable wait may constitute constructive refusal when evidence destruction is a realistic risk.


United States v. Banks, 540 U.S. 31 (2003)