We are Proud of our Men and Women who serve

The sheriff’s office supports our employees who are serving overseas.

They took our HCSO flag and proudly displayed it at their camp.

Medicine Collection Events recover more than 400 pounds of controlled narcotics

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and Hennepin County would like to thank citizens for participating in the Medicine Collection Event that took place Saturday, October 8 in Orono. More than two hundred citizens cleaned out their medicine cabinets and dropped off medications.

Since September of last year, the Sheriff's Office and Hennepin County have held five collection events in communities across the county, including the Orono event. The following results are approximate totals for all the events:

• 2,300 participants
• 423 lbs. of controlled narcotics recovered
• 5,100 lbs. of non-controlled medicines recovered

"Community participation was outstanding,” said Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, “I met many parents and grandparents at these collection events who were making an effort to protect the children in their homes from potential medication abuse or accidental poisoning."

Prescription painkillers were among the medications that were collected at the events and these medicines are the most likely to be used improperly, abused, or diverted for illegal sale. Young children are at risk of accidental poisonings from ingesting medications that are not secured. Citizens have been urged to participate in Medicine Collection Events in order to dispose of medications in a safe and legal manner.

All items that were collected were taken to incinerators for destruction - which is the most environmentally-friendly method of disposal. It is not recommended to flush medicines down the drain or to throw them in the garbage because medications in waste water or in landfills can contaminate bodies of water, harm wildlife and end up in drinking water supplies.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, Hennepin County Environmental Services, and North Memorial Hospital have been partners in the five events that took place in St. Louis Park (two events), Brooklyn Center, Richfield, and Orono.

Medications in the home have become a problem for a number of reasons:
• The Centers for Disease Control is calling medication abuse, an epidemic in the U.S.
• One in five teens reports abusing prescription medications. Teens who wouldn’t use illicit drugs might abuse prescriptions.
• Medications are a major law enforcement problem because some of the drugs are controlled substances, and it is very difficult to legally dispose of them.

DEA Leave Behind

Now We Know What We didn’t Know Then: The Creation of the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan following the Events of September 11,2001

By Sheriff Rich Stanek
Article published in "Sheriff" September/October 2011 - A publication of the National Sheriff Association

I am sure you remember exactly where you were the morning of September 11, 2001, when two planes flown by terrorists deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center Towers, a third plane was intentionally crashed into the Pentagon and fourth attempt was thwarted and the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There were 2996 deaths, and 2977 victims, including 411 emergency workers who died attempting to rescue victims and fight fires. That day forever changed the world and introduced the United States to terrorism.

But do you know the significance of August 6, 2001? Just 36 days prior to the attacks? The events of that day have forever changed the way we operate in the law enforcement community. On August 6th, 2001, the CIA President’s Daily Brief mentioned unconfirmed reports that Osama Bin Laden was planning to retaliate against the United State with a terror attack, “follow the example of the World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, and bring the fighting to America.” The document is haunting, and begs the question: Could the attacks have been prevented if we had known better how to use the information?

Click here to read the full article.