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ST. LOUIS — ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Tuesday signed an executive order banning city police from executing no-knock warrants, a law enforcement tactic that came under intense public scrutiny after Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in Kentucky in 2020.

is a search warrant authorizing police officers to enter a property without knocking or announcing their presence before entering.

Jones’ office noted that while the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Police Department has not executed a no-knock warrant in the past year, this executive order is an effort to strengthen the mayor’s “long-term commitment to reimagining policing and building trust between community members and their police force.â€�

The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen passed legislation in 2020 that prohibited the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases, after the no-knock warrant executed on Taylor’s Louisville, Kentucky, apartment. Police believed a suspected drug dealer, not Taylor, was receiving packages at the residence.

Taylor’s boyfriend fired one gunshot at the police, thinking they were intruders. Officers then fired several shots, five of which hit Taylor. She later died.

introduced by then-Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, also banned officers from using chokeholds and updated additional use-of-force policies.

A chokehold is a method of applying pressure to a person’s neck to restrict breathing. The maneuver also fell under intense public scrutiny following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a few months after Taylor’s death in March 2020.

“Public safety and policing must be responsive to the needs and concerns of the community,� Jones said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “This is an important step for our city and in line with action taken by municipalities across the country.�

While ºüÀêÊÓƵ police have not recently used no-knock warrants, the department has previously received criticism for no-knock searches:

• On May 5, 2016, SWAT officers broke down Clara Williams-Norise’s front door and used smoke bombs before searching the home based on a confidential informant’s allegation that marijuana was being sold from the house. Police handcuffed her daughter and led her outside half-naked, Williams-Norise said.

• On Feb. 21, 2017, police shot and killed Donald “Don� R. Clark Sr. in his home after they broke down the door and tossed a “flash bang� diversionary device inside the residence. His family has filed a federal lawsuit.

• On June 7, 2017, Isaiah Hammett, 21, was killed by ºüÀêÊÓƵ police when SWAT members served a “no-knockâ€� warrant on the house he lived in with his grandfather. Hammett’s family filed suit in 2019 against the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and the nine officers involved, alleging police used excessive force in the incident.