The office manages the county jail, patrols waterways, provides security for the District Court, handles home foreclosures, participates in homeland security activities and in law enforcement, and by state law is responsible for handling applications for permits to carry a firearm for residents of Hennepin County.[1][2][3] The HCSO Crime Lab Unit is one of six crime labs in Minnesota accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board.[4] The HCSO Patrol Unit provides supplemental patrol coverage to a number of smaller police agencies in northwestern Hennepin County as well as specialized patrol service and assistance to all Hennepin County law enforcement agencies. In addition, the Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement service provider to the following:[citation needed]
The HCSO was a major component of the Metro Gang Strike Force, which was created by the state legislature in 2005 after the Minnesota Gang Strike Force was dissolved.[5] It was shut down in 2009 due to rampant corruption and abuse.[6][7]:2 In 2010, a $3 million settlement was reached between the agencies that made up the Strike Force and 96 individuals who claimed to be victims of misconduct by the Strike Force.[8][9]
Richard W. Stanek (R) was elected sheriff in 2007. Later in 2007, Sheriff Stanek used $30,000 of civil forfeiture funds that were earmarked for training to produce a video on the I-35W Mississippi River bridge; this incurred criticism from the mayor of Minneapolis R.T. Rybak and Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan, who claimed the video contained false information and stole credit from the city government.[10] The company that produced the video was also used by Stanek for his 2006 campaign.[11]
2016 deployment to North Dakota
In October 2016, the HCSO provided support from its special operations division in response to North Dakota officials' mutual aid requests,[12] for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, causing an outcry from Hennepin County citizens and leaders.[13][14] HCSO deputies were deployed to Morton County, North Dakota, along with deputies from neighboring Anoka and Washington Counties, from October 23–31, 2016 as part of an Emergency Management Assistance Compact agreement between the state governments of Minnesota and North Dakota.[15]
Hundreds of citizens protested daily at Hennepin County Government Center and Minneapolis City Hall [16] Among political leaders opposed to Sheriff Stanek's decision were Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith,[17] U.S. Representative Keith Ellison,[18] state Representative Peggy Flanagan,[15][19] state Representative Karen Clark, state Senator Patricia Torres Ray, Minneapolis City Council members Alondra Cano and Cameron Gordon,[20] Civil rights organizer Clyde Bellecourt[12] and Hennepin County commissioners Marion Greene, Linda Higgins,[21] and Peter McLaughlin who, in a Facebook post said, "Indian Nations have a special interest in this issue and that interest must be protected! There's plenty for the Sheriff to do here in Hennepin County," said McLaughlin. "It is not a priority use of the Sheriff's office resources, which the Sheriff controls by virtue of his election.[22]
An online petition by Honor the Earth called on the Sheriff's department to desist in its participation.
We are residents of Hennepin County, MN and we are alarmed at the deployment of Hennepin County Sheriff's Department forces to North Dakota to take part in the hyper-militarized and violent repression of peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. In our judgment, the demonstrations by water protectors on and near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation have been overwhelmingly peaceful, prayerful, dignified, and reverent. They have been exercises of the inherent human rights and constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech and assembly. (...) Hennepin County has absolutely no place and no right to support such activity with our tax dollars. We hereby call on all Hennepin County Commissioners and Sheriff Richard Stanek to immediately withdraw all Hennepin County forces from North Dakota.
In response, Sheriff Stanek issued a statement explaining that his office responded to the request from North Dakota to maintain "the public's safety, preserve the peace, and protect the constitutional rights of protesters" and that the deployment was a routine mutual aid agreement between law enforcement agencies.[24][25] Minnesota deputies were released from their duties in Morton County on October 31 after the state fulfilled its part of the EMAC agreement.[19] Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton stated in an interview that the deployment was a routine mutual aid response, and that "It sounds like they conducted themselves very professionally."[26] Financially, North Dakota eventually reimbursed Hennepin County for the salaries of the officers sent there, but not for the overtime hours needed by the officers who remained behind on duty in Hennepin County.
George Floyd
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In December 2021, Sheriff Hutchinson pled guilty to a misdemeanor DWI charge after crashing his vehicle near Alexandria, Minnesota. He was sentenced to two years of probation.[30] Although the crash report showed that Hutchinson was driving 125 miles per hour (201km/h) at the time, he was not charged for extreme speed.[31] Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan called for his resignation,[32] Hutchinson announced he would not seek reelection.[30] In November 2022, Dawanna Witt was elected as the 29th Sheriff of Hennepin County, making her the first woman and person of color to hold the position.[33]
Awards and honors
U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services Demonstration Site
HCSO was named one of 15 nationwide demonstration sites for "policing in the 21st Century" by the COPS Office of the federal Department of Justice.[34]
2016 IACP/Booz Allen Hamilton Award for the Outstanding Prevention of Terrorism
2019 ASIS International Public-Private Partnership Excellence Grant in honor of Matthew Simeone
HCSO was granted the ASIS International Public-Private Partnership Award in recognition of its Shield program, which builds relationships between law enforcement and local businesses and security providers. The award was presented at the annual ASIS conference in Chicago.[37]
↑ James Nobles, Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) (May 20, 2009). Metro Gang Strike Force Special Review (Report). Financial Audit Division Report. Saint Paul, Minnesota: State of Minnesota. p.38.
Ramsey County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 552,352, making it the second-most populous county in Minnesota. Its county seat and largest city is Saint Paul, the state capital and the twin city of Minneapolis. The county was founded in 1849 and is named for Alexander Ramsey, the first governor of the Minnesota Territory.
Hennepin County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named for the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin. It extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. Its natural areas are covered by extensive woods, hills, and lakes.
Minneapolis, officially the City of Minneapolis, is a city in the state of Minnesota and the county seat of Hennepin County. With a population of 429,954, it is the state's most populous city as of the 2020 census. It occupies both banks of the Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with 3.69 million residents. Minneapolis is built on an artesian aquifer on flat terrain, and is known for cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. Nicknamed the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls. The city's public park system is connected by the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesota, after the Saint Paul Police Department that formed in 1854. A short-lived Board of Police Commissioners existed from 1887 to 1890.
Karen J. Clark is an American politician and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented District 62A, which included portions of the city of Minneapolis in the Twin Cities metropolitan area including portions of the Whittier, Phillips, Ventura Village, Seward, and Lyn-Lake neighborhoods. She was the longest serving openly lesbian member to serve in a state legislature in the United States. On December 8, 2017, Clark announced in a press release that she would not be running for reelection.
Richard W. "Rich" Stanek is an American politician and former law enforcement officer who served as the sheriff of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office from 2007 to 2019.
Occupy Minneapolis (OccupyMN) is a grassroots collaboration that began in October 2011 with a series of demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protesters have staged numerous occupations, most notably of the Hennepin County Government Center plaza.
On November 15, 2015, two police officers fatally shot Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis. The two shooters were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. They were a part of the Minneapolis Police Department which subsequently placed the men on paid administrative leave. The night after Ringgenberg and Schwarze shot him, Clark died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being taken off life support. His death resulted from one of the gunshot wounds the shooters inflicted on November 15.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that he made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before Floyd was handcuffed. A fourth police officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from intervening.
The following is a timeline of race relations and policing in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, providing details with a history of policing in the Twin Cities in the U.S. state of Minnesota from the nineteenth century to the present day. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, with its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, is one of the "largest law enforcement agencies in Minnesota" with division and unit facilities throughout Hennepin County. Twin cities, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, have their own police departments, the Minneapolis Police Department, which was established in 1867 and the Saint Paul Police Department. A union for rank and file officers in Minneapolis—the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis —was established in 1917.
Local protests over the murder of George Floyd, sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or Minneapolis uprising, began on May 26, 2020, and within a few days had inspired a global protest movement against police brutality and racial inequality. The initial events were a reaction to a video filmed the day before and circulated widely in the media of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd struggled to breathe, begged for help, lost consciousness, and died. Public outrage over the content of the video gave way to widespread civil disorder in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and other cities in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over the five-day period of May 26 to 30 after Floyd's murder.
Deona Marie Knajdek, a 31-year old American woman, was killed on June 13, 2021, when a man drove a car into a crowd of demonstrators who had gathered as a part of the Uptown Minneapolis unrest. That evening, demonstrators protesting the law enforcement killing of Winston Boogie Smith had blocked the intersection of West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. At approximately 11:39p.m.CDT, a man in a late-model Jeep Cherokee drove into the crowd at a high speed, striking a parked vehicle that had been used to block off the intersection to traffic, which then collided with protesters, killing Knajdek and injuring three others.
Dolal Idd was a 23-year-old Somali-American man who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers at approximately 6:15 p.m. CST on December 30, 2020, after he shot at them from inside the car he was driving. The fatal encounter happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota during a police sting operation.
The 2022 Minnesota Attorney General election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the attorney general of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Incumbent DFLer Keith Ellison narrowly won reelection to a second term against Republican challenger Jim Schultz.
Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old black American man, in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08p.m.CDT on June 3, 2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force, and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.
The Stop Line 3 protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations in the U.S. state of Minnesota against the expansion of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline along a new route. The new route was completed in September 2021, and was operational on 1 October 2021. Indigenous people have led the resistance to the construction of the pipeline, which began following the project's approval in November 2020. Opponents of the pipeline expansion, called water protectors, have established ceremonial lodges and resistance camps along the route of the pipeline. Enbridge has funded an escrow account that law enforcement agencies may draw on for pipeline-related police work. Organizers have arranged marches and occupations of Enbridge construction sites. Following the blockade of an Enbridge pump station on June 7, 2021, nearly 250 people were arrested. Invoking treaty rights, organizers established an encampment at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at a site where Enbridge intends to bury the pipeline.
Civil unrest began in the Uptown district of the U.S. city of Minneapolis on June 3, 2021, as a reaction to news reports that law enforcement officers had killed a wanted suspect during an arrest. The law enforcement killing occurred atop a parking ramp near West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. Police fired several rounds, killing the person at the scene. In an initial statement about the encounter, the U.S. Marshals Service alleged that a person failed to comply with arresting officers and produced a gun. Crowds gathered on West Lake Street near the parking ramp soon afterwards as few details were known about the incident or the deceased person, who was later identified as Winston Boogie Smith, a 32-year-old black American man.
In 2020 and 2021, several protests were held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that coincided with judicial proceedings and the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin. As an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man who died during an arrest incident on May 25, 2020. A bystander's video captured Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd struggled to breathe, lost consciousness, and died. Protesters opposed Chauvin's pre-trial release from jail on bail in October 2020. In the lead up to and during the criminal trial in early 2021, demonstrators sought conviction and maximum sentencing for Chauvin, and the enactment of police reform measures.
Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.
The 2022 Hennepin County Attorney election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the County attorney of Hennepin County, Minnesota. On September 1, 2021, incumbent county attorney Michael O. Freeman announced that he would retire at the end of his term after 24 years in the role. Former Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty defeated former Hennepin County judge Martha Holton Dimick and became the first openly LGBTQ woman elected as Hennepin County Attorney.
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