A Ramsey County judge has granted class certification to a group of hundreds of undercover law enforcement officers who say a state board compromised their identities.
The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) was sued in January by three undercover police officers and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA) after the POST Board allegedly compromised the names of at least 257 undercover police officers.
The lawsuit alleges that the POST Board failed to keep the undercover officers’ data private, thus violating the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.
The POST Board is a state regulatory body that is responsible for licensing every police officer in Minnesota. The Board sets training standards for law enforcement and can enact rules that all licensed peace officers must follow. Additionally, the agency has the authority to punish law enforcement officers and strip them of their peace officer licenses.
As such, the Board keeps private information about every licensed peace officer in the state.
Like any government agency, the POST Board is subject to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. Under that law, private citizens can request and receive any public data relating to the POST Board. However, certain types of data, such as identifying information about undercover police officers, is considered private and not accessible by the public.
Despite this, the lawsuit alleges that the identities of many undercover police officers were compromised in August of 2024 when the POST Board responded to a data request with information that included the names and birth dates of undercover police officers in Minnesota.
The lawsuit states the data requestor uploaded that information to the internet but was unaware that the data they received included the information about undercover officers. That data was also distributed to media outlets, publicized, and accessible to anyone in the world, court documents allege.
According to the lawsuit, the POST Board failed to quickly address the situation and promptly notify the undercover police officers. In one instance, the lawsuit alleges that MPPOA confronted POST Board Executive Director Erik Misselt about the situation, who reportedly responded by saying, “Who told you that?”
“He then assured MPPOA’s senior leadership that the information was pulled down and no longer available, which was false,” the lawsuit claims. Later that same day, Misselt “began to act with much more urgency” upon learning that MPPOA and others in the law enforcement community were aware of the disclosure, the lawsuit says.
Court documents state that the affected undercover officers have become deeply concerned for their safety and the safety of their loved ones. Numerous officers have taken additional measures to protect their families and scrub online information about themselves, the lawsuit states. Officers have also reported sleeplessness, stress, and a loss of any feeling of security.
In an order this week, Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro rejected the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit and granted the officers’ request for class certification.
“This court also has grave concerns for the safety of the undercover officers and their families. For this reason alone, a class action is superior to each officer filing an individual lawsuit,” Castro wrote in his order.
The case represents the first class action under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.
“It’s profoundly shocking how the POST Board, hand-picked by Tim Walz and represented by Keith Ellison, can take the position that it has no obligation to keep undercover officers’ identities private,” said attorney Chris Madel, who represents MPPOA and the undercover officers, along with attorneys Cassandra Merrick and Stephen Foertsch.
“When a politician endangers undercover officers by opposing the protection of their identities, they aren’t just playing politics — they’re playing with lives,” he added.
The POST Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
