Expungements

Two bills signed into law during the 2023 legislative session require automatic expungement (sealing) of certain criminal history records.

The Clean Slate Act

The Clean Slate Act went into effect Jan. 1, 2025. It requires automatic expungement (sealing) of certain records from a person's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) criminal history that in the past would require the person to petition the court for an order expunging the record. Other criminal history records still require a petition and court order.
The Clean Slate Act identified hundreds of offenses and/or dispositions (case outcomes) that could be expunged. Since 2023, the BCA in collaboration with the Minnesota Judicial Branch has been working to identify all of those offenses and dispositions on more than 16 million criminal history records in the Criminal History System (CHS) so we could implement computer programming to automatically expunge (seal) affected records.

Clean Slate Act records expungements*

Total potentially eligible records	Records expunged (sealed) to-date	Records being reviewed by the Minnesota Judicial Branch	Percent of total records expunged or in final Minnesota Judicial Branch review
2,175,793	1,490,258	75,618	71.9%

*Data as of Oct. 7, 2025

Records related to incidents that became eligible after Jan. 1, 2025, follow the same review and expungement (sealing) process as historical records.

How does the expungement process work?

In its simplest terms, the work to automatically expunge (seal) Clean Slate records goes like this:

COMPLETE: The BCA determines criteria to identify affected records in its Criminal History System (CHS) and writes computer programming to expunge the records.
COMPLETE: The BCA and the Minnesota Judicial Branch test records in CHS and the court record system (MNCIS) to ensure the correct records are flagged to be expunged.
ONGOING: The BCA provides records identified for expungement to the Minnesota Judicial Branch, which has 60 days to review and notify the BCA of any objections.
ONGOING: The BCA then automatically expunges any records to which the courts do not object.

The BCA finished the initial programming needed to expunge (seal) records in CHS in September 2024 and, in March 2025, in partnership with the Minnesota Judicial Branch, completed testing on the programming needed to identify records to be expunged in CHS and by the courts.

The tests were a critical part of making sure that the automated process would work as expected, expunging only those records that qualify and, just as important, ensuring that records that should not be expunged for public safety reasons remain visible to the public.

The BCA began sending potentially eligible records to the courts for review on April 21, 2025, and began automatically expunging records in CHS on June 20, 2025.

Why are most of the records still visible on the BCA criminal history website?

The Clean Slate Act affects nearly 100 years of historical criminal history records held by the BCA – from when records were kept on paper, to the 1990’s with the state’s first computerized records system, to CHS. The same is true of records held by the courts. Each new system came with improved rules for how data should be entered. This combination of data types and requirements resulted in a significant number of records requiring manual review before they can be considered for expungement.

When will Clean Slate Act records be expunged?

Clean Slate Act expungements are underway now. The BCA began sending potentially eligible records to the Minnesota Judicial Branch on a daily basis for review in April 2025. For these records, this began the statutorily required 60-day court review process that must occur before the expungements can be completed. All of these initial records, with the exception of those to which the court objected, were sealed in the BCA’s Criminal History System (CHS) on June 20, 2025. This began a nearly daily rhythm of BCA sending records to the courts, 60-day court review, and BCA record expungement that continues today.

While the initial goal was to send all qualifying records to the courts for review at once, the BCA pivoted to sending a group of records on a daily basis beginning with the most easily matched so that the expungement process could move forward on these records while we continue working with the courts on reviewing more complicated records to ensure the accurate sealing of any records.

Most historical records that remain visible to the public after we have completed our work will have been determined by the courts to be ineligible for expungement under the Clean Slate Act.

While this work is ongoing, a notice has been placed on all records in CHS indicating that criminal history records may contain information that qualifies for automatic expungement under the Clean Slate Act. Because the Clean Slate Act affects not just past records but future records as well, additional records that may be eligible continue to accrue on an ongoing basis.

We must take the time to ensure that all records are accurately expunged as required by the Clean Slate Act and that we do not expunge records that must remain available for important public safety purposes. The BCA and the Judicial Branch continue to collaborate as expeditiously as possible to meet the requirements of the law.

Additional information about records affected by the Clean Slate Act is available on the Criminal History System FAQ page.

The Adult-Use Cannabis Act

The Adult-Use Cannabis Act eliminates certain cannabis-related offenses and requires automatic expungement of certain prior cannabis-related records from the BCA's Criminal History System.

Cannabis-related records that qualified for automatic expungement were expunged from the BCA's Criminal History System in May 2024. The BCA will review records in the system again in 2026 to identify and expunge any additional records that were still in the court process when the 2024 expungements occurred.

Cannabis Expungement Board

Eligible felony-level cannabis-related convictions will be reviewed by the Cannabis Expungement Board to determine whether those records meet criteria identified in the statute for expungement.

The Cannabis Expungement Board is an independent entity separate from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Information on efforts to stand up this new board, its timeline, and a point of contact for inquiries about board activities, are available on the Cannabis Expungement Board website.

National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact

Minnesota is part of the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, which requires the records remain visible in other states unless a petition is filed and the court orders the record at the BCA be sealed from view in other states.

Notifications

The BCA does not have contact information for people with records in the Criminal History System and as a result cannot notify individuals about changes to their criminal history records. A notice is posted on all records in the BCA Criminal History System notifying those who view the records about the possibility of future changes under the Adult-Use Cannabis Act and the Clean Slate Act.

Additional information about records held by the BCA is available on the Criminal History System FAQ page.

Requesting expunged records held by the BCA

People can request records held by the BCA about themselves at any time, including before or after the records are expunged.

The BCA does not delete expunged criminal history records– they are simply hidden from public view. They are always available to the subject of the data.

The BCA does not hold records for low-level offenses that don’t result in an arrest. Because we don’t receive or hold those records, they will not show up on records requested from the BCA.

To obtain a copy of your Minnesota criminal history record, submit a data request.

Accessing expunged records for immigration purposes

For immigration-related benefits (such as obtaining visas, naturalization, international travel, and work authorization), expunged records may need to be reported to immigration agencies. Keeping a copy of your criminal history record may be important. Please consult with an immigration attorney if you are a person who is not documented who has a record that will be expunged under this provision.

Records held by the BCA