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, in collaboration with the Minnesota Judicial Branch, the BCA 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. In its simplest terms, the work to automatically expunge (seal) Clean Slate records goes like this:

The BCA determines criteria to identify affected records in its Criminal History System (CHS) and writes computer programming to expunge the records.
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.
The BCA provides records identified for expungement to the courts, which has 60 days to review and notify the BCA of any objections.
For any records the courts do not object to, the BCA then automatically expunges them in the system.

The BCA finished the initial programming needed to expunge (seal) records in CHS in September 2024 and, over the past several months, has worked in partnership with the Minnesota Judicial Branch to test the new programming used to identify records to be expunged in CHS and by the courts.

These tests are a critical part of making sure that the automated process will 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.

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

Unfortunately, the BCA and the courts have encountered a number of challenges during the testing process:

Each test is run against 16.6 million records and 16,827 statutes dating back to 1927. Due to the size and complexity of the data, each test run requires three weeks to finish, in part because the system must remain available to the public during testing.
With each test, “bugs” are identified, which is the purpose of testing. These “bugs” must be fixed through additional computer programming, and then the three week testing process begins again.
The Clean Slate Act affects nearly 100 years of criminal history records – from when they were kept on paper, to the state’s first computerized system in the 1990s, 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. As a result, accurate information in a record at the BCA may incorrectly flag as a mismatch to the court record. Here are a few real examples:

Information in a record	Listed in a BCA record as:	Listed in a court record as:
Statute number	152.025	152.025.2
Case number	12CR1234	12CR12345
Disposition (what ended up happening with the case)	Stay of adjudication (a sentencing that allows the person to avoid a conviction)	Stay of adjudication plus a conviction

Any of these examples would flag as a mismatch during testing. Every time this happens, the record must be manually reviewed to determine whether they are about the same person and incident.

When will Clean Slate Act records be expunged?

The BCA pivoted from sending all qualifying records to the courts at once to sending records incrementally. We are sending records incrementally so that the expungement process can move forward while we continue working with the courts on more complicated records. The first group of records are those that are most easily matched to records at the courts.

The BCA began the process of sending eligible records to the Minnesota Judicial Branch for review on April 21. For these records, this begins the statutorily required 60-day court review process that must occur before the expungements can be completed. Unless the court objects, these records will be sealed in the BCA’s Criminal History System (CHS) beginning on Friday, June 20.

We are conducting manual reviews to ensure the process is working as expected and plan to continue this incremental approach until the work is complete. Barring unforeseen issues, we expect to increase the number of records sent to the courts each day.

Working through an estimated 2 million eligible historical records will take some time but we will provide progress updates on this page periodically and let you know when our work on historical records is complete. Historical records that remain visible after that 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 will become eligible 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 and plan to have an updated timeline in the near future.

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 2025 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