---
title: O.C.G.A. § 17-5-27. Use of force in execution of search warrant.
collection: code
id: 17-5-27
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 17-5-27 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-5-27
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-5-27.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-5-27/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t17-(v15)-2020-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=8c04ccfe_0#page=221
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/17-5.md
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE / SEARCHES AND SEIZURES / SEARCHES WITH WARRANTS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 17-5-27. Use of force in execution of search warrant.

All necessary and reasonable force may be used to effect an entry into any building or property or part thereof to execute a search warrant if, after verbal notice or an attempt in good faith to give verbal notice by the officer directed to execute the same of his authority and purpose:

(1) He is refused admittance;

(2) The person or persons within the building or property or part thereof refuse to acknowledge and answer the verbal notice or the presence of the person or persons therein is unknown to the officer; or

(3) The building or property or part thereof is not then occupied by any person.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 4636; Code 1868, § 4660; Code 1873, § 4758; Code 1882, § 4758; Penal Code 1895, § 1244; Penal Code 1910, § 1326; Code 1933, § 27-301; Ga. L. 1966, p. 567, § 8.

## Law Reviews

For note, ‘‘Cops or Robbers? How Georgia’s Defense of Habitation Statute Applies to No-Knock Raids by Police,’’ see 26 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 585 (2010).