Four types of protection orders are issued by Minnesota courts: Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), Harassment Restraining Order (HRO), Order for Protection (OFP), and Domestic Abuse No Contact Order (DANCO). The key differences between them are the issuing court, the initiating party and how the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) tracks them.

	Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO)	Harassment Restraining Order (HRO)	Order for Protection (OFP)	Domestic Abuse No Contact Order (DANCO)
Order type	Civil	Civil	Civil / Family	Criminal
Initiated by	Petitioner	Petitioner	Petitioner	State / Prosecutor
Data passed to the BCA	Minimal fields for Hot Files entry (supplemented by document)	Minimal fields for Hot Files entry (supplemented by document)	Full text (all findings and conditions)	Minimal fields for Hot Files entry.
Document passed to the BCA	Yes	Yes	No	No
Hit confirmation required by law enforcement	No	No	No	*Yes

Any person search through Portals (e.g. QDP, QP, QPO) or a comparable person search through a vendor-provided mobile/CAD/RMS connection to LEMS will return a protection order. 

Training available 

General protection order and Extreme Risk Protection Order trainings are available on CJIS Launch Pad in the nexTEST Library.

Service of ERPOs, OFPs and HROs may occur at court when the respondent is present or by law enforcement or corrections officials after its issuance. Following service, sheriff’s office personnel must file an affidavit of service. The Hot File should be updated as soon as possible to show the service has been completed. Enter the service information into Portals using the SPO message key. Any law enforcement agency may enter an SPO.

• Contact the BCA Service Desk at bca.servicedesk@state.mn.us, 651-793-2500 or 888-234-1119 with questions about general protective order availability in Hot Files.
• Contact your local city or county attorney for specific procedures and practices related to Extreme Risk Protection Orders.