Minnesota State Patrol

What the audit said

No findings. MNSec was given administrative access to the PIPS Technology BOSS system; all 6 mobile devices carried 2-day retention settings and no plate reads were detectable after 2 days. Audit trail sampled; log of use reports maintained in BOSS; no inter-agency sharing requests during the period.

FinePrint notes

Third State Patrol audit on file (2017 LEADS, 2022 OSA, this one). Titled the '2023 ALPR Audit', report dated 2024-02-27, filed as LRL 240398. Confirms the OSA 2022 audit covered 2020-2021, so the State Patrol has kept a biennial cadence since at least 2020; only a 2018-2019 cycle remains unlocated. Fleet shrank from 16 units (2017) to 11 (2022) to 6 (2024). Located via MNSec-name search of LRL.

What the audit said

Agreed-upon procedures engagement under AICPA attestation standards; no exceptions noted on any of the 8 procedures. OSA inspected PIPS hit data, the audit trail and data request log for 2020-2021 (four staff searches, all with documented purposes; no data shared with outside agencies; no exports observed), the log of use, user access roles, and the 2-day retention practice. GHOST FINDING: the report's own narrative notes the State Patrol's policies do not designate who may grant written access authorization as Minn. Stat. 13.824, subd. 7(b) requires (practice relies on the Director of Operations and Asset Management), yet the procedure was closed with no exception recorded. A policy-documentation gap, superficial in tier, but described and left off the record.

FinePrint notes

Second State Patrol audit on file (first: 2017, LEADS Consulting). Conducted by the Office of the State Auditor, Audit Practice Division (Julie Blaha, State Auditor; Dianne Syverson, CPA, Deputy State Auditor) — a constitutionally independent state office, structurally the most independent auditor in this table. Report dated 2022-03-25; PIPS reports run 2022-01-21/25 (recorded as conducted date). System: PIPS Technology (formerly 3M BOSS lineage), 11 mobile units, no stationary. Covers 2020-2021, leaving a 2018-2019 cycle with no located audit. Provided by reader tip / Google search of LRL. Note: engagement letter scoped to Minn. Stat. 13.824 and 626.8472.

What the audit said

No discrepancies recorded, and the testing was genuinely substantive: LEADS examined a random sample of 160 of 3,726 reads from the prior 48 hours, ran electronic searches of the live BOSS database confirming no data older than 48 hours, examined the audit trail directly (16 trooper users, 4 administrators), and reviewed public logs of use. Observations noted without findings: 2 of 16 ALPR units had malfunctioning GPS recording (3M delaying repair amid its sale of the ALPR business to Neology), two false reads, and duplicate reads among hits. Notable: the State Patrol deletes ALPR data within 48 hours, far stricter than the 60-day statutory maximum — the shortest retention in this table.

FinePrint notes

Report submitted 2017-11-27 (conducted 2017-11-13); filed in the LRL 2020 mandated-reports folder (doc 200650). Auditor LEADS Consulting (Law Enforcement Audit and Data Services), director Bob Fletcher, the former Ramsey County Sheriff — LE background flagged. GPS malfunction on 2 units noted as an equipment issue, not a statutory violation, so not treated as a ghost finding. FOLLOW-UP RESOLVED 2026-08-30: newer State Patrol audits located and added — 2022 (Office of the State Auditor, covering 2020-2021, LRL 220670) and 2024 (MNSec, covering 2022-2023, LRL 240398). Only a 2018-2019 cycle remains unlocated. Located via LRL mandated-reports search.