No-knock warrants allow police to force their way into people’s homes without warning. What happens when this aggressive police tactic becomes the rule, rather than the exception? 

"Broken Doors" is a new investigative podcast series about how no-knock warrants are deployed in the American justice system - and the consequences for communities when accountability is flawed at every level. Hosted by Jenn Abelson and Nicole Dungca.

Sheriff’s deputies burst through the front door of a man’s home as he slept. He said they pointed a gun at his head and ransacked his home in search of drugs and cash. The no-knock search warrant they used was threadbare. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

The Washington Post’s Jenn Abelson and Nicole Dungca started identifying unusual warrants almost from the moment they began their investigation into no-knock raids. When Jenn looked more closely at documents from a rural county in Mississippi, she got a startling view into how little it took to execute a no-knock warrant in Monroe County.

Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2015, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office hurled a battering ram into the home of Ricky Keeton to carry out a no-knock search warrant. After the raid turned deadly, Ricky’s family confronted the sheriff — and began secretly recording.