Kentucky’s high court hears arguments in dispute between police union and Lexington’s ban on ‘no-knock’ warrants

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — After the 2020 shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, ‘no-knock warrants’ have been under closer political scrutiny. Lexington banned them shortly after; however, the decision-making behind that ordinance is still in dispute.

“What the FOP was denied here was the right to prove the extent to which its interest is impacted,” Nicholas Oleson, Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge #4’s legal representative, argued before the Kentucky Supreme Court Thursday.

“The LFUCG website has a host of police policies, not just body cams. Stop and frisk. Unbiased policing. All these things. None of them are bargained. None of them are addressed in the CBA as safety issues. Those are policy questions,” Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s legal representative Jason Renzelmann rebutted.

LFUCG argued before the state’s highest court that it did not overstep when the local FOP did not have any options to negotiate the city’s 2021 ban on no-knock warrants. In the union’s view, it’s a safety issue.

“We, on at least 2 different occasions, requested opportunities to meet with the people that were making these decisions, and the city’s response was, ‘we don’t have an obligation to bargain about this,’” Oleson said. “If an officer is handed a warrant today with a ban on no-knock warrants and his commander says, ‘go serve this warrant,’ and the officer personally believes this is probably a situation where maybe in the past we would have used a no-knock circumstance, ‘I don’t feel safe doing this.’ Can the officer protest that point without facing charges of insubordination?” he asked.

Oleson argued that the ban is a safety and work rule that an officer in the union is entitled to bargain about. Renzelmann argued that a collective bargaining debate is limited to the base employment relationship and can’t be used to advocate or block the enforcement of legislation.

“If LFUCG changes the speed limit, that potentially has impacts on officer safety; gun control laws have impacts on officers’ safety. That doesn’t mean they’re bargainable conditions,” Renzelmann said. “If they want to negotiate for different disciplinary procedures, that’s their option they can raise that,” he later said, adding that LFUCG and the union are currently underway negotiating a new bargaining agreement.

The court said it will issue a ruling “as soon as possible.” A lower court initially agreed with the LFUCG’s position and dismissed the case, but the decision was overturned by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, leading to the current appeal before the high court.