Ramsey County Prosecutor John Choi is urging law enforcement to make full use of Minnesota’s red flag law.

Enacted in January, the measure allows judges to temporarily confiscate a person’s firearms if they could injure themselves or others.

Choi said Thursday that police officers and sheriff’s deputies who refer cases to prosecutors will follow a checklist to determine whether an extreme-risk protective order, or ERPO, is appropriate in a given circumstance. If it is, Choi said his office will petition the court, even in cases where criminal charges may not be warranted.

“We want to be intentional about how we get that information, and then, most importantly, make sure that when we get that information, we actually do something about it,” Choi said.

By law, 14-day firearm confiscations require a person to immediately surrender their weapons. Long-term ERPOs only go into effect after a hearing so the gun owner can appeal the petition.

Choi’s press conference followed a training session for about 150 people, including law enforcement, assistant county attorneys, mental health professionals and advocates for victims of domestic violence.

“We will cooperate and at the end of the day, we will do everything we can to prevent tragedies, and we will look at our work as potentially preventing homicide or suicide,” Choi said.

The city attorney of St. Paul Lyndsey Olson, whose office prosecutes misdemeanor and felony cases, noted that the law does not require a crime to occur for an ERPO to be issued.

“This is a civilian tool so the focus is on removing that weapon from a person that could potentially hurt someone when there may not be any other criminal activity in a given situation,” Olson said.

In addition to city and county prosecutors, the red flag law allows family and member of a person’s household to request an ERPO.

In the first eight months after the law went into effect, court statistics show 77 extreme-risk protection orders were filed nationwide, mostly by law enforcement. Half were the result of a risk of domestic violence, and three-quarters involved someone with a history of mental illness.

MPR News reporter Peter Cox contributed to this report.

In Minnesota, a 24-hour sexual and domestic violence hotline is available. You can call Minnesota Day One at (866) 223-1111 or text (612) 399-9995 to connect to the resources closest to where you live.