LEGISLATIVE SERVICES AGENCY
OFFICE OF FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS
FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
LS 6886 NOTE PREPARED: Feb 14, 2025
BILL NUMBER: SB 281 BILL AMENDED: Feb 13, 2025
SUBJECT: Expungement.
FIRST AUTHOR: Sen. Baldwin BILL STATUS: CR Adopted - 1
st
House
FIRST SPONSOR:
FUNDS AFFECTED: GENERAL IMPACT: Local
DEDICATED
FEDERAL
Summary of Legislation: (Amended) Juvenile Delinquency Sealing and Expungement: This bill specifies
that certain 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. It also
repeals a provision requiring a court to expunge certain records on the court's own motion and specifies that
the juvenile court shall cooperate to ensure that certain records are available to the prosecuting attorney or
a deputy.
Expungement of Official Misconduct: The bill allows the expungement of official misconduct if: (1) the
person seeking the expungement is not an elected official; and (2) the prosecuting attorney consents.
Expungement Petitions: The bill requires a person filing a petition for expungement to include the
chronological case summary, if available. It also permits disclosure to the state police department of certain
sealed records if disclosure is required for the purpose of expunging or marking as expunged records in the
central repository for criminal history information.
Expungement of Unlawful Possession by Felons: This bill prohibits expungement for a person convicted of
unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025.
Explanation of State Expenditures:
Explanation of State Revenues:
Explanation of Local Expenditures: (Revised) Juvenile Delinquency Sealing and Expungement: This bill
makes it so that juvenile court records relating to delinquency proceedings will be available without a court
order in a timely manner to law enforcement officers acting within their scope of duty. An individual may
petition a court to seal records relating to delinquency proceedings, however they shall still be made available
SB 281 1 to officers if the said records are within officers’ scope of duty.
When a court grants an expungement petition relating to delinquency proceedings, the court shall order each
person who provided treatment to the child to send their records to the court. These expunged records will
be sealed and made available to law enforcement acting within the scope of their duties. Data from these
sealed records with personally identifiable information removed may be made available to the public for the
purposes of statistical analysis, research, and financial auditing.
This bill also repeals automatic expungement through the court’s own motion of juvenile delinquency cases
a year after the said individual is discharged or when they turn 19 years old. This may lead to individuals
submitting more requests for expungement which may increase juvenile courts’ workloads in processing the
requests.
Developing processes which make sealed juvenile delinquency court records accessible to law enforcement
and keeping personally identifiable information hidden from the general public is within courts’ routine
administrative functions and should be able to be implemented with no additional appropriations, assuming
near customary agency staffing and resource levels.
Expungement of Official Misconduct: This bill prohibits elected officials from seeking expungement for
official misconduct, but allows non-elected officials to seek expungement. This may reduce courts’ workload
in processing expungement filings if individuals who were elected officials are convicted of this crime know
they cannot seek expungement.
(Revised) Expungement Petitions: The bill adds that an expungement petitioner must also include the
chronological case summary for each court cause number they seek to expunge. This will create an additional
point of information for juvenile courts to verify before carrying out an expungement. The workload of
juvenile courts will also increase in disclosing sealed records to the state police department for the purpose
of expunging or marking as expunged records in the central repository for criminal history information.
(Revised) Expungement of Unlawful Possession by Felons: This bill prohibits expungement for a person
convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and would reduce the workload of
courts processing the petitions of individuals who would have otherwise sought expunging their conviction.
[According to the Abstracts of Judgement, between FY 2021 and FY 2024 there were a total of 2,345
offenders sentenced for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, or an average of 585
offenders annually.]
Additional Information - The following summarizes the number of juvenile delinquency cases that were
disposed in CY 2023 by courts in Indiana:
• Marion and Allen County disposed of an average of more than 27 juvenile delinquency cases per
week;
• Five counties averaged between 5 and 13 per week;
• Thirty-three counties averaged between 1 and 5 per week;
• Fifty-one counties averaged between 0 and 1 per week;
• One county had no juvenile delinquency cases.
Explanation of Local Revenues:
SB 281 2 State Agencies Affected: Indiana State Police, Law enforcement agencies.
Local Agencies Affected: Juvenile Courts, Local law enforcement agencies
Information Sources: Indiana Supreme Court
https://www.in.gov/courts/iocs/statistics/trial-probation/2023/
Fiscal Analyst: Abdulrahman Abdulkadri, 317-232-9852.
SB 281 3