Minnesota Moves to Ban 'Warrantless Geofence' Tracking Around Crime Scenes

Minnesota lawmakers are stepping into the complex legal debate balancing investigative convenience with individual privacy in the digital age, as a bill proposing a ban on 'reverse location tracking' – where authorities sweep up location data from all devices in a specific area – has been introduced.

Democratic State Senators Erin Maye Quade and Omar Fateh, along with Republican State Senator Eric Lucero, have co-sponsored legislation to prohibit the execution of warrants that collect data from devices near a crime scene. In the House, Democratic Representative Sandra Feist has proposed companion legislation. The Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee first discussed the bill on March 9, 2026.

The proposed law would prevent the collection of mass data solely based on a device's presence near a crime scene within a specific timeframe, unless in emergency situations. It also grants individuals whose data was improperly collected the right to sue law enforcement agencies directly. Proponents of the bill argue that such warrants violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The use of reverse location warrants in Minnesota surged from 22 cases in 2018 to 173 cases in 2020. Meanwhile, the U.S. federal courts are scheduled to hear oral arguments in April regarding the constitutionality of reverse location warrants. Google announced in 2023 that it would no longer honor warrant requests by changing its data storage policy to keep location history data on the device itself rather than on its servers.