Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Co-Chair Limmer calls for every option to hold accountable those involved

Today, media reports revealed that a significant data breach has occurred at the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board, exposing the identities of every undercover peace officer in the state. The POST Board has confirmed it is notifying 257 officers believed to be impacted by the breach.

“This breach demands our greatest scrutiny,” said Senator Warren Limmer (Maple Grove), Republican Co-Chair of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. “Our peace officers already face significant risks, and those working undercover bear even greater dangers. Exposing the identities of these officers jeopardizes hundreds of cases, years of police work, and—most importantly—the lives of the men and women dedicated to protecting our communities,” he added.

“This data breach is a massive failure by the POST Board, is extremely dangerous and totally unacceptable. A legislative review must be immediately convened to prevent this from ever happening again,” Limmer commented.

The POST Board Executive Director position is appointed by Gov. Tim Walz. “I call on Gov. Walz to give this issue his greatest priority and attention. This kind of catastrophic mistake is not something we can easily recover from. Every employment and statutory option for holding accountable those responsible for this breach should be on the table,” Limmer emphasized. There are civil, criminal, and disciplinary penalties for state agencies that violate state laws that keep some data private.

It was also discovered that the data had been publicly available online for the past five months but was taken down when the breach was identified.