diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 8cd4f3c201..c898bcb3a1 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -249,6 +249,9 @@ New Functionality
   '^' are binary "and", "or" and "xor" operators, and '~' is a unary
   ones-complement operator.
 
+- The string_to_pattern() built-in (and the now-deprecated merge_pattern()
+  built-in) is no longer restricted to only be called at initialization time.
+
 Changed Functionality
 ---------------------
 
diff --git a/src/bro.bif b/src/bro.bif
index f0641104c9..835bcc3f7a 100644
--- a/src/bro.bif
+++ b/src/bro.bif
@@ -2960,12 +2960,6 @@ function uuid_to_string%(uuid: string%): string
 ##      :bro:id:`bro_init`.
 function merge_pattern%(p1: pattern, p2: pattern%): pattern
 	%{
-	if ( bro_start_network_time != 0.0 )
-		{
-		builtin_error("merge_pattern can only be called at init time");
-		return 0;
-		}
-
 	reporter->Warning("merge_pattern() builtin-function has been deprecated");
 
 	RE_Matcher* re = new RE_Matcher();
@@ -3035,12 +3029,6 @@ function convert_for_pattern%(s: string%): string
 ##      :bro:id:`bro_init`.
 function string_to_pattern%(s: string, convert: bool%): pattern
 	%{
-	if ( bro_start_network_time != 0.0 )
-		{
-		builtin_error("string_to_pattern can only be called at init time");
-		return 0;
-		}
-
 	const char* ss = (const char*) (s->Bytes());
 	int sn = s->Len();
 	char* pat;