No-knock warrants almost never used in Mankato region

MANKATO — No-knock warrants, at the center of controversy in Minneapolis and St. Paul, are virtually nonexistent in the Mankato area.

“In my 20 years I don’t recall a no-knock warrant,” said Nicollet County Sheriff Dave Lange.

Lt. Jeff Wersal of the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office, who is head of the River Valley Drug Task Force, said the task force executes a lot of search warrants, but not no-knocks.

“The task force hasn’t done one in at least five years,” he said.

Minnesota Democrats will advance legislation banning police from using no-knock raids, while leading Republicans said they supported a review of the state’s existing restrictions.

The calls follow the Feb. 2 predawn raid by Minneapolis police that killed 22-year-old Amir Locke, who was not the target of the no-knock warrant.

Mankato Department of Public Safety Director Amy Vokal said she can’t remember her department using one in the past decade or more.

She said she and a deputy director would be required to sign off on asking for a no-knock warrant. “So there’s good checks and balances.”

Vokal said that over the years the department has learned how to better handle potentially dangerous situations.

“We’ve gotten better at our tactics and learned to slow things down. We can sit and wait a person out or find them out and about (before arresting them).”

Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Cpt. Paul Barta said no-knock warrants are rarely needed as tactics law enforcement use have evolved.

“I was on the SWAT team from 2006 to 2016 and even then no-knock warrants were rare.”

But he said when he was first on the team, it was fairly routine for officers to go into residences even in drug cases or suicidal threats.

Barta said that at about that time there was a national discussion about using tactics that put suspects, bystanders and officers at higher risk. And he was involved in the team that had a standoff with a man in 2006 in Amboy, which resulted in an exchange of gunfire, where police officers and the suspect were injured. The suspect eventually killed himself.

“That’s all translated into a different way of doing things that make no-knocks less prevalent. Now it’s more ‘surround and call,’ where you hold the space where they’re in and then you try to negotiate, and if that doesn’t work, you look at chemical uses and things,” Barta said.

Still, Barta is opposed to the state outright banning no-knock warrants.

“Our work is so dynamic. You never know what might be thrown at you, so I don’t think it should be taken off the table. If they want to track them better and things, that’s fine, but they should still be an option.”

North Mankato Police Chief Ross Gullickson said his agency hasn’t used a non-knock warrant the several years he’s been here.

“I’ve been a cop for more than two decades, and I’ve never been involved in a no-knock warrant.” That includes a stint in the SWAT team when he was a Carver County deputy.

Wersal said the Drug Task Force, a multi-jurisdiction unit with members from several area police and sheriff departments, executed 110 search warrants last year. Some are to search electronic devices, others are looking for drugs.

The task force made 59 drug arrests last year and 13 non-drug arrests for crimes such as illegal possession of guns.

He said a majority of drug arrests stem from a suspect buying drugs from an undercover agent.

Wersal said that if they are going to arrest someone who is indoors, they generally stake them out and wait for them to come outside. “We’d much rather arrest someone out in public rather than going into their home, because that’s dangerous.”

Lange said that even when they execute an arrest warrant versus a search warrant, they don’t do no-knock warrants.

“We knock on their door and announce who we are, and nine times out of 10 they don’t answer.”

He and other area law enforcement representatives said that there is a place for no-knock warrants. They cite cases where they may be seeking a murder suspect or in a case where someone is barricaded inside and others inside may be in danger.

But even in most cases of someone barricaded inside, a SWAT team is called and they surround the building and work to talk the person out.

Gullickson thinks the option of a no-knock warrant needs to be available to law enforcement.

“If the situation would arise where there’s a known threat or there’s weapons or there’s a known risk to officers, there can be a need for them.”

Gullickson said that in general officers don’t want to use arrest warrants to push their way into a home or apartment to get a suspect.

“They are inherently dangerous. It’s dangerous not only for law enforcement but for the public.”

Limited and rare

In a five-month period starting in September, there were no agencies in all of southern Minnesota that reported executing a no-knock warrant, according to a new state database.

Last year Minnesota lawmakers tightened regulations for no-knock search warrants and they required departments to report them to the state.

MinnPost reports that through early this month Hennepin County had 11 no-knock warrants while Minneapolis and St. Cloud each had eight. The other 10 departments that used no-knock warrants, mostly all in the metro area, had four or fewer.

The St. Cloud warrants were mostly tied to the Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force, which involves multiple agencies in their region.

Pat Nelson, professor and chair of the department that teaches law enforcement students at Minnesota State University, said no-knock warrants are rare in southern Minnesota.

She said part of the MSU curriculum covers state statutes about no-knock warrants and what’s needed to apply for any kind of warrant.

“We do stress heavily how limited no-knock warrants should be. There’s very few down here. We see them in the Twin Cities and elsewhere in the state,” Nelson said.

“Usually the key with a no-knock is you have to have credible evidence someone is violent and armed. The intent (of no-knocks) is to protect those inside the residence and the officers.”