(ABC 6 News) — With the new year comes the beginning of a landmark policy, impacting an estimated 500,000 Minnesotans.

Under the Clean Slate Act passed by state lawmakers in 2023, conviction records for low level and non-violent crimes are being automatically sealed.

This includes people with misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, and non-violent felonies.

The Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, however, says the new law’s coverage is too broad.

Advocates, on the other hand, say it will chance lives.

“Twenty years is a big milestone. And, I can tell you that by three or four years that I was certain the sobriety and healing from my trauma that I was never going back to that lifestyle of drugs and crime,” said Gina Evans, who is eligible for the Clean Slate Act.

The state would expunge these records automatically so anyone eligible shouldn’t have to do anything to make this change happen.