New Restrictions for Columbia Police
Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton reacted to public outrage Monday afternoon and rolled out new restrictions. The basic theme of Monday was change is coming.
Eight hours is how long Columbia's SWAT team now has to serve a search warrant. If they do not do it that fast, Burton said it's back to the drawing board.
That is not the only new rule. Most notably, narcotics and SWAT commanders will be taken out of the decision making process for serving warrants. Dynamic searchers, the type where the SWAT team enters a house, will only be authorized if a child is not in the home. If there is any reason to believe a suspect finds out about the warrant before it is served, that search will be scrapped.
"I'm telling you we did some things wrong," said Chief Burton. "I'm telling you we've fixed those things, that the public can be assured that a similar incident is not going to happen again without somebody's head rolling because it's now the police."
Burton said the force will continue recording its searches and most of the tapes will remain public. He also said the department will not change its animal policy.