Minnesota bill would ban warrants allowing police to collect data from devices near a crime scene
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.
A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers has proposed a bill seeking to ban warrants allowing law enforcement to gather data revealing which cellphones and other devices that were near a crime scene at a specific time.
Democrat state Sen. Erin Maye Quade introduced a Senate bill to ban those warrants in most cases, with Sens. Omar Fateh, also a Democrat, and Eric Lucero, a Republican, joining as original sponsors.
The bill would also allow anyone whose information was obtained during the search to sue law enforcement.
Lawmakers argue the warrants should be prohibited except in emergency situations. They said reverse location warrants, sometimes called "geofence" or "dragnet" warrants, are too broad and violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
YOUR PHONE IS NOW A CRIME SCENE IN YOUR POCKET
Critics of the warrants say authorities can gather data on thousands of people near a particular area, including those who attended an event that could be of interest to law enforcement, such as a protest.
"We do believe that we have to balance our constitutional rights and public safety so that we’re not essentially sending law enforcement in to search for a needle in a haystack by exponentially increasing the size of the haystack," Maye Quade said during a hearing on March 9.
Law enforcement groups, including the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, contend that the bill is too broad, although both have suggested a willingness to negotiate with lawmakers about data privacy concerns.
"We recognize and share the Legislature’s commitment to protecting individual privacy and civil liberties. However, as drafted, this bill would impose an outright prohibition on investigative tools that are lawful, court-supervised, and, in many cases, critical to solving serious crimes and protecting public safety," the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association said in a letter to lawmakers.
Senate lawmakers first discussed the bill in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 9. House lawmakers discussed a companion bill, originally proposed by Rep. Sandra Feist, a Democrat, in the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on Feb. 24.
This comes amid an ongoing case at the national level, in which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in April on the constitutionality of reverse location warrants.
Between 2018 and 2020, the number of reverse location warrants in Minnesota jumped from 22 to 173.
In 2023, Google said it would stop storing location data in a way that would make it …
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.
A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers has proposed a bill seeking to ban warrants allowing law enforcement to gather data revealing which cellphones and other devices that were near a crime scene at a specific time.
Democrat state Sen. Erin Maye Quade introduced a Senate bill to ban those warrants in most cases, with Sens. Omar Fateh, also a Democrat, and Eric Lucero, a Republican, joining as original sponsors.
The bill would also allow anyone whose information was obtained during the search to sue law enforcement.
Lawmakers argue the warrants should be prohibited except in emergency situations. They said reverse location warrants, sometimes called "geofence" or "dragnet" warrants, are too broad and violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
YOUR PHONE IS NOW A CRIME SCENE IN YOUR POCKET
Critics of the warrants say authorities can gather data on thousands of people near a particular area, including those who attended an event that could be of interest to law enforcement, such as a protest.
"We do believe that we have to balance our constitutional rights and public safety so that we’re not essentially sending law enforcement in to search for a needle in a haystack by exponentially increasing the size of the haystack," Maye Quade said during a hearing on March 9.
Law enforcement groups, including the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, contend that the bill is too broad, although both have suggested a willingness to negotiate with lawmakers about data privacy concerns.
"We recognize and share the Legislature’s commitment to protecting individual privacy and civil liberties. However, as drafted, this bill would impose an outright prohibition on investigative tools that are lawful, court-supervised, and, in many cases, critical to solving serious crimes and protecting public safety," the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association said in a letter to lawmakers.
Senate lawmakers first discussed the bill in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 9. House lawmakers discussed a companion bill, originally proposed by Rep. Sandra Feist, a Democrat, in the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on Feb. 24.
This comes amid an ongoing case at the national level, in which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in April on the constitutionality of reverse location warrants.
Between 2018 and 2020, the number of reverse location warrants in Minnesota jumped from 22 to 173.
In 2023, Google said it would stop storing location data in a way that would make it …
Minnesota bill would ban warrants allowing police to collect data from devices near a crime scene
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.
A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers has proposed a bill seeking to ban warrants allowing law enforcement to gather data revealing which cellphones and other devices that were near a crime scene at a specific time.
Democrat state Sen. Erin Maye Quade introduced a Senate bill to ban those warrants in most cases, with Sens. Omar Fateh, also a Democrat, and Eric Lucero, a Republican, joining as original sponsors.
The bill would also allow anyone whose information was obtained during the search to sue law enforcement.
Lawmakers argue the warrants should be prohibited except in emergency situations. They said reverse location warrants, sometimes called "geofence" or "dragnet" warrants, are too broad and violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
YOUR PHONE IS NOW A CRIME SCENE IN YOUR POCKET
Critics of the warrants say authorities can gather data on thousands of people near a particular area, including those who attended an event that could be of interest to law enforcement, such as a protest.
"We do believe that we have to balance our constitutional rights and public safety so that we’re not essentially sending law enforcement in to search for a needle in a haystack by exponentially increasing the size of the haystack," Maye Quade said during a hearing on March 9.
Law enforcement groups, including the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, contend that the bill is too broad, although both have suggested a willingness to negotiate with lawmakers about data privacy concerns.
"We recognize and share the Legislature’s commitment to protecting individual privacy and civil liberties. However, as drafted, this bill would impose an outright prohibition on investigative tools that are lawful, court-supervised, and, in many cases, critical to solving serious crimes and protecting public safety," the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association said in a letter to lawmakers.
Senate lawmakers first discussed the bill in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 9. House lawmakers discussed a companion bill, originally proposed by Rep. Sandra Feist, a Democrat, in the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on Feb. 24.
This comes amid an ongoing case at the national level, in which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in April on the constitutionality of reverse location warrants.
Between 2018 and 2020, the number of reverse location warrants in Minnesota jumped from 22 to 173.
In 2023, Google said it would stop storing location data in a way that would make it …
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