Dear Hennepin County Voters,
I hope to earn your support, and to serve as your local Sheriff, for all of the following:
- Violent Crime is down County wide by more than 25% since I was first elected, but we can never let up, we must continue the fight against violent crime with all available resources and strategies.
- Untreated mental illness: I will continue my advocacy to make sure mental illness is no longer criminalized by our justice system, and to ensure those with mental illness in our jail get the proper medical care and treatment they deserve.
- Opioid addiction: I will continue to work to educate residents about this public safety crisis and public health epidemic. To this end, I have implemented several initiatives to address this threat to our families, neighbors, and colleagues: drug take-back boxes, prescription medicine destruction bags, providing first responders with naloxone kits, #NOverdose social media campaign and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area partnerships for law enforcement.
- Hiring, recruiting and retaining a highly trained, professional and diverse workforce: I am especially proud of the work we have done to provide Crisis Intervention Training to sworn and detention officers, procedural justice and impartial bias training to all employees in the Sheriff’s Office, and the improvements we have made in eliminating hiring disparities and employing a workforce that better reflects the community we serve. Since I was first elected Sheriff, with a concerted effort in working with community leaders, we have more than doubled the diversity of the Agency.
- I have always viewed it to be my job not just to respect, but also to protect the constitutional rights and civil liberties of every resident throughout the county.
I am very proud to have been a police officer in Minnesota for 35 years, and it is a great honor to serve side by side with the men and women of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, who have sworn an Oath to protect and defend all residents and visitors across the County.
I respectfully ask for your support and hope to earn your vote on November 6, 2018.
Sincerely,
Rich Stanek
Hennepin County Sheriff
You can get even more information about Sheriff Stanek at www.sheriffstanek.com and learn more about the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office at hennepinsheriff.org. Both websites also have contact information for further inquiries.