The automatic deletion of records began on August 1, but questions remain about the timeliness of the introduction

Delaware was the fifth state to pass the Clean Slate law in 2021, and the automated expungement process began this month.

On August 1, Delaware began automatically purging the records of 290,000 eligible Delaware residents regarding certain arrests, misdemeanors, and some felonies.

Eligible records can include things like non-convictions – charges or arrests that were dropped or found not guilty – certain misdemeanors after five years, and a very limited number of felonies after ten years. The full list of eligible records can be found here.

John Reynolds, deputy director of policy and advocacy for the ACLU of Delaware, says passage of the Clean Slate Act was a big step for Delaware, but some questions about the process remain unanswered.

He points out that the State Bureau of Identification (SBI) has decided to manually review each criminal record entry eligible for expungement, which could delay the process.

“That's partly why it's taking so long – or probably will take so long – even though the state agencies have been given a lot of money to make this an automated process where an algorithm, like in all these other states, uses the data that's in the system that has been verified by humans – or at least that they've told us they've verified – they've decided to have a human double-check it, which could add further complications, errors and time to the process,” Reynolds explains.

He says to his knowledge, no other clean slate state manually checks records, except for a few states where records are not fully digitized and therefore require a human to review physical copies or records.

But he also says that Delaware has some advantages as a smaller state. There are fewer files to clean up and the state has a centralized court system and court database, which should make it easier to automate the process.

“Despite all this, unfortunately we seem to be the slower to roll out, as we have started but there is no clear indication of how long it will take for the system to actually get up and running.”

Reynolds says there is currently no good way for Delaware residents to check whether their criminal record has been expunged either, unless they go to the clerk's office or pay a $72 fingerprinting fee to request their certified criminal record. However, he argues that cost barriers and lengthy court processes were the reason Delaware residents did not file expungement requests in the first place.

“It's not clear in what order they'll be processed or when people can expect the current backlog to be processed. It may be that people have to incur those costs and make those appointments and do that – which has been a barrier to most people getting expungement,” he said.

“I don't want to downplay it – August 1st was a big day, it's important. But there are a lot of unanswered questions that make it difficult for some people to understand how this day really affects their lives, simply because we have a whole lot of unanswered questions.”

For more information about the Clean Slate Act, visit the ACLU’s Automated Expungement Hub.