LEGISLATIVE SERVICES AGENCY
OFFICE OF FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS
FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
LS 6886 NOTE PREPARED: Feb 20, 2025
BILL NUMBER: SB 281 BILL AMENDED: Feb 18, 2025
SUBJECT: Expungement.
FIRST AUTHOR: Sen. Baldwin BILL STATUS: As Passed Senate
FIRST SPONSOR: Rep. Steuerwald
FUNDS AFFECTED:XGENERAL IMPACT: State & Local
DEDICATED
FEDERAL
Summary of Legislation: 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: 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.
Chronological Case Summaries: The bill requires the Office of Judicial Administration (OJA), before July
1, 2025, to establish an electronic system for transmitting a chronological case summary to the State Police
Department for purposes of expungement.
Effective Date: July 1, 2025.
Explanation of State Expenditures: Chronological Case Summaries: The bill requires the OJA to establish
an electronic system for receiving requests for chronological case summaries and transmitting chronological
case summaries to the Indiana State Police for expungement purposes. This requirement is within the
agency’s routine administrative functions and should be able to be implemented with no additional
appropriations, assuming near customary agency staffing and resource levels.
SB 281 1 Explanation of State Revenues:
Explanation of Local Expenditures: 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 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.
Expungement Petitions: The workload of juvenile courts will 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.
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;
SB 281 2 • One county had no juvenile delinquency cases.
Explanation of Local Revenues:
State Agencies Affected: Indiana State Police, Law enforcement agencies, Office of Judicial Administration
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