Senate Bill 26-004

This act establishes stricter evidentiary requirements for search warrants and creates liability for property damage caused by law enforcement during warrant execution. Search warrant applications must establish probable cause through verifiable facts and circumstances. When an application relies on an informant, the informant's claims must be corroborated by at least two independent sources of evidence, including physical evidence, or by electronic surveillance recordings. Applications must also provide evidence supporting the informant's credibility or reliability, and a warrant issued without the required corroboration is considered invalid.

This act requires the execution of every search warrant to be recorded in its entirety using body-worn cameras. If an officer willfully disables the recording device during the search, evidence seized during the execution of the warrant is inadmissible. Law enforcement agencies are also financially responsible for damage to real or personal property caused during execution of a search warrant, regardless of whether the warrant itself was valid or officers acted in good faith, when the property owner is not subsequently charged with a crime related to the search or seized items. Recoverable damages include repair or replacement costs, loss of use, and other documented consequential damages.

This act generally requires seized property to be returned to its lawful owner within 45 days, unless it is being retained as evidence in a pending criminal prosecution or a court authorizes continued retention for good cause. When testing or analysis could alter the condition of seized property, the owner must receive 10 days' notice and an opportunity to have an independent expert present. Individuals whose rights are violated may bring a civil action against the responsible law enforcement agency and recover actual damages, statutory damages equal to three times actual damages or $10,000, whichever is greater, injunctive or declaratory relief, and attorney fees and costs. Governmental immunity is not a defense to liability for actual damages under the act.

This act imposes additional accountability measures on individual officers. An officer found to have materially misrepresented an informant's reliability or fabricated corroborating evidence in a warrant application must be terminated and permanently barred from law enforcement service in the state. An officer who executes a warrant in reckless disregard of the act's evidentiary requirements is personally responsible for 25 percent of resulting damages, including payment from personal assets or pension funds. An officer who witnesses malicious destruction of property during a search and fails to report it to the Attorney General within 48 hours must be charged as an accessory to the underlying offense. This act was approved May 23, 2026, and is scheduled to take effect August 18, 2026.