A bill to ban no-knock warrants in Minnesota passed through the House's Public Safety Committee on Wednesday.
Under the House bill, courts would be prohibited from signing off on no-knock search warrants. Representative Brion Curran, a former police officer and Chisago County deputy sheriff, introduced the bill.
“No-knock warrants are unsafe and put the pursuit of justice above the lives of innocent bystanders, the lives of police officers, and people who are in the right place but on the wrong sheet of paper,” Rep. Curran said. “Minnesotans have a constitutional right to privacy and to defend themselves in their home, which no-knock warrants unnecessarily infringe upon. I thank the family of Amir Locke for testifying tonight and urge the legislature to pass this bill and ensure that other innocent bystanders like Amir do not lose their life to no-knock warrants.”
Republicans argue that law enforcement must have access no-knock warrants as part their jobs.
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Those in favor of banning such warrants include Andre Locke, whose son Amir Locke was shot and killed by Minneapolis police during a no-knock raid in February 2022.
Locke was an innocent bystander and not named in the investigation prompting the no-knock warrant.
“No-knock warrants, like the one that resulted in Amir’s senseless death, are an issue that Minnesota and our entire nation need to deal with,” Andre Locke said. “We’ve seen over and over again across the country ways in which these raids result in unnecessary damage, injury and death. We call on our leaders to do the right thing and eliminate or significantly restrict this militaristic approach to policing our communities."
The bill was referred to the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on a vote of 8-5.