SHERIFF RICH STANEK - WHAT'S NEW AT THE HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEHennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek and Deputy Kell McDaniel provided our March 27 program: an overview of what the Sheriff’s Office is and does. The department has been a model of stability, with just 27 sheriffs since 1852. It had a 70-year period under just three sheriffs. This is an elected position covering a lot of ground, since Hennepin County has 1.3 million residents and more than 556 square miles of territory. The department has eight lines of business: jail, court security, patrol, warrants, civil process, investigations, 911 dispatch, and crime lab. One of their current initiatives is #NOverdose, which is a campaign to raise awareness of the opioid crisis. A record number of people died from opioid-related overdoses in Hennepin County during 2017: the number is 162, which is a 47 percent increase from two years earlier. The Sheriff’s Office has participated in nearly 130 public events and speaking engagements to spread the word about this growing epidemic. |