BCA released records on 595 people in error

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) accidentally released over 500 people's records due to a computer error. 

BCA criminal history records released

What we know:

According to the BCA, some non-public criminal history records were made accessible on the state's public criminal history website.

These records are kept on the Minnesota Criminal History System (CHS), and a computer copies public records from CHS to its public criminal history website.

Dig deeper:

The error happened when CHS did not recognize recent activity on records, which had items that were not public, and released them to the public website erroneously.

According to the BCA, records for 595 people were accidentally made public for a "varying amount of time." Some vendors got these non-public records from data requests.

The issue was fixed on Feb. 25 after about a month of testing it, the BCA says.

The BCA says a report will be made on this issue, and to receive it email BCA.DataResponse@state.mn.us and provide your contact information.

What we don't know:

The BCA did not say whose records were released.

It is not clear what affect the accidental record release will have.

The Source: A press release from the Minnesota BCA. 

Crime and Public SafetyMinnesota