On February 4, 2025, the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard SB 281 on expungement authored by Sen. Baldwin. The bill specifies that records relating to juvenile delinquency proceedings are accessible to a law enforcement officer acting within the scope of the officer’s duties and requires persons having custody of these records to take steps to ensure that these records are available to the law enforcement officer in a timely manner. The bill repeals the automatic juvenile expungement provision in the juvenile code. The bill also prohibits the expungement of a crime of violence and allows the expungement of official misconduct if: (1) the person seeking the expungement is not an elected official; and (2) the prosecuting attorney consents.
The bill was amended by consent to specify that:
- The following delinquency records are available to law enforcement:
- The child’s name and age
- The nature of the delinquent act
- The chronological case summary, and
- Index entries, summonses, warrants, petitions, orders, motions (excluding psychological or child abuse evaluations), decrees, and photographs for specific adjudications.
- The juvenile court must cooperate with a prosecuting attorney or any authorized staff member to ensure that these records are accessible by web portal to the prosecuting attorney and are otherwise available in a timely manner to a prosecuting attorney or any authorized staff member acting within the scope of their duties.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department testified in support of the bill. The Indiana Public Defender Council and the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana testified in opposition. The Indiana State Police testified but remained neutral. The bill was held for amend and vote.
On February 11, 2025, the bill was amended by consent to:
- require a person filing a petition for expungement to include the chronological case summary, if available.
- permit disclosure to the state police department of certain sealed records if disclosure is required for expunging or marking as expunged records in the central repository for criminal history information, and
- prohibit expungement for a person convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
The amended bill passed 7-1.
Read the bill at https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/281