Minnesota

Minnesota's public-records framework is the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA), codified in Chapter 13 of the Minnesota Statutes. The Act starts from a presumption that government data is public unless a statute classifies it otherwise. Law enforcement data specifically is governed by Minnesota Statutes § 13.82, which spells out exactly which categories of arrest and incident data are open to the public.

Critically for anyone searching arrest records, Minnesota Statutes § 13.82, subdivision 26 classifies booking photographs as public data. A booking photograph is defined as a photo or electronically produced image taken by law enforcement for identification purposes in connection with an arrest. The single exception is narrow: an agency may temporarily withhold a booking photo if releasing it would adversely affect an active criminal investigation. Once the investigation is inactive, the presumption of openness returns.

County Structure

Minnesota has 87 counties, each with an elected sheriff who operates the county jail or detention center. Municipal police departments—such as the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Rochester, and Bloomington departments—make arrests within their cities, but arrestees are generally booked into the county jail for the county in which the arrest occurred. This means booking records are maintained at the county level rather than in a single statewide roster, so a search usually starts with the correct county sheriff's office. On this site you can explore records from Minnesota's busiest jurisdictions, including Hennepin, Anoka, St. Louis, Dakota, and Scott counties.

Major Detention Facilities

Minnesota's highest-volume booking facilities are concentrated in the Twin Cities metro and the state's regional centers:

• Hennepin County Adult Detention Center (Minneapolis) — Operated by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, this is the busiest jail in the state, serving Minneapolis and the surrounding county.
• St. Louis County Jail (Duluth) — The primary detention facility for northeastern Minnesota and the Arrowhead region, serving the state's largest county by land area.
• Anoka County Jail (Anoka) — Serves the fast-growing northern Twin Cities suburbs.
• Dakota County Jail (Hastings) — Serves the southern metro suburbs south of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers.
• Stearns County Jail (St. Cloud) — The central Minnesota hub anchoring the St. Cloud metropolitan area.
• Olmsted County Adult Detention Center (Rochester) — Serves Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic, and surrounding southeastern Minnesota.

How to Search Minnesota Arrest Records

There are several reliable ways to look up booking and criminal-history information in Minnesota:

• County jail rosters — Most Minnesota sheriff's offices publish an online jail roster showing current detainees, booking dates, and charges. Hennepin County's roster, for example, covers people booked today and within the prior 90 days. You can also browse Minnesota mugshots and booking photos here on America's Top Mugshots.
• BCA Public Criminal History Search — The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) operates a free public criminal-history system at chs.state.mn.us, required by Minnesota Statutes § 13.87. Convictions are public for 15 years following completion of the sentence. Searches require a full name and date of birth; in-person viewing at the BCA office (1430 Maryland Avenue East, St. Paul) is free, with copies $8 each.
• Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO) — The judicial branch's public case-search portal at publicaccess.courts.state.mn.us lets anyone look up criminal case filings, charges, and dispositions. The courts note that MCRO is for case lookups, not formal background checks.
• Data practices requests — Under the MGDPA, any member of the public may request public law-enforcement data directly from a county sheriff or police department.

Mugshot Removal and Expungement in Minnesota

Minnesota expungement is governed by Chapter 609A of the Minnesota Statutes. The most significant recent change is the Clean Slate Act (Minnesota Statutes § 609A.015), which took effect on January 1, 2025. The Clean Slate Act provides for the automatic expungement of many eligible records after a waiting period that runs from completion of the sentence—generally two years for petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors, three years for gross misdemeanors, four years for certain drug felonies, and five years for most other qualifying felonies—provided the person stays free of new convictions. The BCA identifies eligible records and notifies the courts; by 2026 the agency had processed the large majority of the roughly two million eligible records.

Cases that were dismissed, resolved in the person's favor, or completed through a diversion program may qualify for automatic sealing as well. Records that do not qualify automatically can still be sealed through a petition for expungement filed in district court under Chapter 609A. When a court grants expungement, the associated court records are sealed, which limits their public availability going forward.

Population and Geography

Minnesota's roughly 5.7 million residents are heavily concentrated in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, which together account for well over half of the state's population. Outside the metro, regional centers such as Rochester (Olmsted County), Duluth (St. Louis County), St. Cloud (Stearns County), and Mankato (Blue Earth County) anchor large rural service areas. The state stretches from the prairies of the southwest to the forests and lakes of the north, and its decentralized, county-based corrections system reflects that geographic spread. For all available Minnesota counties with arrest data, visit our Browse by Location page.