The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension keeps the Predatory Offender Registry, the record of people convicted of predatory crimes who must tell law enforcement, and sometimes the public, where they live, work and attend school, and its registry page states the rule that sets Minnesota apart: under state law, information about people required to register is not public, with two exceptions. The first is the noncompliant registrant, who has broken one of the rules in the law; information about noncompliant registrants over age 16 who have been out of compliance for more than 30 days appears on the bureau's public noncompliant website, limited by law to what helps locate the person, and a tip about such a registrant goes to the local police or through the Submit a Tip button on that site. The second is the registrant subject to community notification, since the Department of Corrections assigns risk levels, arranges notifications for certain offenders and publishes the registrants the law makes public, Level 3 above all, on its own public registrant search; anyone else is known to the police and the corrections agents and to no one else. The bureau also publishes summary data about the registrants, and its questions page warns that the statute itself is the only complete statement of the rules.
The Department of Corrections' fact sheet on the Community Notification Act, dated May 2026, gives the size of the system: registrants have reported their addresses to local law enforcement since July 1, 1991, the bureau has kept the database since then for law enforcement use, and on May 19, 2026 Minnesota had 19,395 active registered persons, of whom about 9,015 had been assigned a risk level, with another 1,143 level assignees living outside the state and inactive here; of everyone with a level, about 57 percent were Level 1, 31 percent Level 2 and 12 percent Level 3, and on January 1, 2026 about 439 registrants subject to broad public disclosure were living in Minnesota communities. The police chief or sheriff who takes registrations in each place is on the Minnesota county pages.
- Search: the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's noncompliant website for registrants over 16 out of compliance more than 30 days, and the Department of Corrections public registrant search for Level 3 and other publicly noticed registrants; everyone else is private.
- Levels: an End of Confinement Review Committee assigns Level 1 lower risk, Level 2 moderate or Level 3 higher before release from a Minnesota prison; 57 percent of leveled registrants were Level 1, 31 percent Level 2 and 12 percent Level 3 in 2026.
- Duties: register with the corrections agent or the local police, give five days' written notice before any new address, report weekly when without one, return the yearly verification form within ten days and visit the police in the birth month once supervision ends.
- Duration: ten years from initial registration or the end of supervision, whichever is later, plus five years for a violation, and life after a second registrable offense, a murder under 609.185(a)(2), the gravest criminal sexual conduct or a civil commitment.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Minnesota's own systems: the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Predatory Offender Registry page, the bureau's Predatory Offender Registry questions page, the Department of Corrections community notification page, the Department of Corrections fact sheet on the Community Notification Act, May 2026, the Department of Corrections general resources for public notification meetings, Minnesota Statutes section 243.166 on the registration of predatory offenders, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who registers, and with whom
Section 243.166 requires registration by anyone charged with or petitioned for a felony murder under 609.185(a)(2), kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct in the first through fourth degree, under 609.3451 subdivision 3(b) or under 609.3453, felony indecent exposure or surreptitious intrusion under 609.746 subdivision 1(h), and convicted or adjudicated delinquent for that offense or another arising from the same circumstances; by anyone charged with criminal abuse under the 2020 version of 609.2325, soliciting, inducing or promoting the prostitution of a minor or sex trafficking of a minor, a prostitution offense under 609.324 subdivision 1(a), soliciting a minor for sexual conduct, using a minor in a sexual performance or possessing or disseminating child pornography and convicted of it or a related offense; by anyone sentenced as a patterned sex offender; by anyone convicted of a similar federal or military offense; by anyone convicted of a similar offense in another state who comes to Minnesota to live, work or study or stays 14 days or longer or more than 30 days in a year, within ten years of release or conviction, or for longer where the other state requires it; by anyone civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person or sexual psychopathic personality, convicted or not; and by anyone found not guilty by reason of mental illness or guilty but mentally ill of a listed offense and committed.
The court tells the person of the duty at sentencing and cannot modify it, the person signs a form, and the registration goes to the assigned corrections agent as soon as one is assigned or, failing that, to the law enforcement authority with jurisdiction over the primary address, meaning the chief of police of a city or the county sheriff in an unincorporated area.
The duties: five days, 24 hours, weekly, and the birth month visit
A registrant gives written notice in person of a new primary address, in Minnesota or in another state, at least five days before starting to live there, and tells the agent or authority immediately on leaving an address; the authority forwards it to the bureau within two business days, and the duty is suspended once the person lives in another state and the bureau has confirmed the new address through the yearly verification or through that state's police, courts, registry or motor vehicle records.
Someone who loses a primary address registers within 24 hours with the authority where the person is staying, registers again within 24 hours of entering any new jurisdiction, reports in person every week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. unless the authority documents an alternative of at least monthly reporting, and re-registers at least yearly, or every three months after a civil commitment; a prisoner with no address to go to registers at least three days before release.
Within five days the registrant also reports every secondary address, meaning any place the person regularly or occasionally stays overnight, all Minnesota property owned, leased or rented, every employer and school, the year, make, model, color and plate of every vehicle owned or regularly driven, the plate tab year and every telephone number, and tells the authority at once when any of it stops applying; a nonresident who works or attends school in Minnesota registers within five days with the authority for the job or school.
The registration carries a signed statement, fingerprints, a DNA specimen and a photograph, and the bureau mails a verification form every year within 30 days of the registration anniversary, twice a year for Level 3 registrants off supervision and for the civilly committed, which must be mailed back signed within ten days; a registrant no longer under supervision also goes in person to the authority for the primary address, or the job or school, in the month of the birth date to verify the information and be photographed.
Before entering a hospital, nursing home, assisted living or similar facility or taking home or hospice care, a registrant discloses the status, and the facility receives a fact sheet with the offense history, the risk level and the profile of likely victims, which most facilities must distribute to residents.
Ten years, plus five, or life
Registration lasts until ten years have passed since the initial registration for the offense or until probation, supervised release or conditional release ends, whichever comes later, with the years of a civil commitment not counted; a failure to give the primary address, to follow the rules for someone without one, to report the required information or to return the verification form within ten days adds five years to the end of the period, and a new registrable conviction or a revocation restarts the ten years from the last release.
Registration lasts for life for anyone with a prior registrable conviction who is convicted again, for a murder under 609.185(a)(2), for the first through fourth degree criminal sexual conduct offenses the section lists by subdivision and clause, and for anyone registered after a civil commitment, and a person convicted in another state registers for that state's period when it is longer. The Department of Corrections adds that notification follows a registrant for as long as the duty to register lasts.
Risk levels: who sets them and what each means
The Community Notification Act, in force since January 1, 1997, requires a risk level for everyone subject to registration before release from a Minnesota correctional or treatment facility, mainly people who committed criminal sexual behavior, kidnapping or false imprisonment, and requires notice of the release. Levels go to registrants released from a Minnesota prison, to those released from another state's prison who come to Minnesota under supervision, to those released from a federal prison who intend to live here, to those released from commitment as sexually dangerous persons, sexual psychopathic personalities or in some cases as mentally ill and dangerous, and on a local police request to anyone released from a federal or out of state prison without supervision who registers here.
An End of Confinement Review Committee at each facility, or at the department's central office for federal and out of state cases and reassessments, made up of the facility's chief executive or a designee, a law enforcement officer, a treatment professional trained in assessing sexual offenders, an experienced caseworker and a victim services professional, weighs the seriousness of the offense, the prior history, the registrant's characteristics such as response to treatment and substance abuse, the community support available from therapy, housing, family and work, any indication that the person will reoffend and any physical condition such as advanced age or illness that lowers the risk, and assigns Level 1 for lower risk, Level 2 for moderate risk or Level 3 for higher risk.
A registrant may ask an administrative law judge to review a Level 2 or 3 within 14 days, may ask the committee for a reassessment after three years, and a supervising agent may ask at any time, or local law enforcement within 30 days, on substantial information the committee did not have.
Notification by level, and the public meeting
The department passes the committee's information to the law enforcement agency where the registrant will live, which is responsible for the notification. For Level 1 the agency may notify victims of and witnesses to the crime, other law enforcement agencies and anyone the prosecutor names; for Level 2 it may also notify the places where people who might become victims are regularly found, given the registrant's history, and individuals it judges at risk, with organizations barred from passing the information on; for Level 3 the law requires broad public notification, usually at a public meeting, with the Level 1 and 2 recipients, the media and other channels used as well, and the public notice carries the general area of residence, a description and photographs, and a description of the past criminal behavior with when and where it happened.
Levels 1 and 2 are not public except as the act or section 253D.32 lets law enforcement release them, and once the police have settled what to disclose about a registrant subject to public notification the department posts it on its public registrant search. The department's resource sheet for those meetings names the two public sites and the victim advocacy services, and the department's Victim Services and Restorative Justice unit answers at 651-361-7250 from 1450 Energy Park Drive, Suite 200, St. Paul.
Penalties, and the data rules
A registrant who knows of the duty and knowingly breaks any part of the section, or who gives false information, commits a felony carrying up to five years or $10,000, with a mandatory commitment to the Commissioner of Corrections of at least a year and a day, two years for a repeat violation, served in full without probation, parole or release unless the prosecutor moves for a departure and the court finds substantial and compelling reasons; a Level 3 registrant convicted of a violation is placed on conditional release for ten years after prison.
The data is private, usable only by law enforcement and corrections for their own purposes, shareable with a child protection worker for an investigation and with the Department of Human Services for background studies, and the bureau may publish information about a registrant over 16 who has been out of compliance for more than 30 days over a primary or secondary address, limited to what helps find the person, and takes it down on a written request once the person complies.
A registrant who believes the published information is wrong may challenge it under the data practices law, and offenders accepted from other states under the interstate compact register as a condition of acceptance.
Reading a Minnesota result
A name on the bureau's noncompliant site means a registrant over 16 who has failed to report an address for more than 30 days, and the listing exists to find the person; a name on the department's public registrant search means Level 3 or another public notification decision, settled by the police after the committee's assessment. A clean search on both proves nothing, since the great majority of Minnesota's registrants are Level 1 or 2 or compliant and therefore private, and the police chief or sheriff for the address is the only one who knows.
Questions about the Minnesota sex offender registry
Related Minnesota records
Minnesota's other public records are covered on this site: the Minnesota arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Minnesota inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections offender locator and the county jails, the Minnesota background check guide for the bureau's public criminal history search, and the Minnesota county pages for every sheriff and police department.