Houston, Texas Voters Approve Freedom Act, Banning No-Knock Warrants and Making Marijuana Cases the Lowest Police Priority

Houston voters approved Proposition A, known as the Houston Freedom Act, in Tuesday's election. The charter amendment makes low level marijuana possession the lowest enforcement priority for the Houston Police Department and bans no-knock search warrants in the city. Unofficial returns showed about 72 percent voting in favor, according to KPRC Click2Houston. The results remain unofficial until the canvass.

What changes at HPD

Under the amendment, enforcement of Class A and Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession becomes the department's lowest law enforcement priority, and the charter adds reporting requirements for marijuana enforcement. The measure does not legalize marijuana. Possession remains illegal under Texas law, and officers can still enforce state possession laws.

The warrant provision bars Houston officers from requesting, executing or participating in a search warrant that does not require them to knock, announce their presence and wait at least 15 seconds before entering. The two policies were bundled into a single ballot question, so voters could not approve one without the other.

The Harding Street raid behind the vote

No-knock warrants have been a live issue in Houston since the 2019 Harding Street raid, in which homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas were killed and several officers were wounded. After that raid, the department required the police chief to personally approve any no-knock warrant. City records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle showed that none had been approved under that policy as of August. Because the ban now sits in the city charter, it cannot be lifted by a change of department policy or a future chief's waiver.

How it reached the ballot

Proposition A reached the ballot after a petition campaign led by Ground Game Texas, which submitted about 40,000 signatures in support of the charter amendment. The City Council approved the measure on September 9. Houston Public Media reported that the department has made about 440 arrests a year for misdemeanor marijuana possession under Mayor John Whitmire. Those cases now sit at the bottom of the department's stated priority list, and the new reporting requirements are meant to show how the numbers move from here.

What happens next

The count is not final. Votes were still being counted after election night, and the totals become official only after the canvass. The Marijuana Herald, in calling the result, noted that how the amendment is put into practice, and how it interacts with state law, could draw further legal scrutiny. Until then, the text Houston voters approved is the working policy: marijuana cases at the bottom of the priority list, and a knock, an announcement and a wait of at least 15 seconds before officers go through a door on a search warrant.