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Hennepin County sheriff outlines staffing, fentanyl response and jail programs in Dayton presentation
Summary
Hennepin County Sheriff Dwan Witt briefed the Dayton City Council on recruitment and retention work, new bureaus, anti-fentanyl initiatives and jail programming during a Feb. 11 presentation to the council.
Hennepin County Sheriff Dwan Witt told the Dayton City Council on Feb. 11 that recruitment and retention remain priorities for his office and outlined several programmatic responses to violent crime and overdose risk, including a county auto-theft initiative and a prevention-focused program on fentanyl.
Witt, elected in 2022, said the sheriff’s office employs about 830 full-time staff countywide and has reduced licensed-deputy vacancies from about 30–35 earlier in his term to roughly 17 now. He said jail staffing shortages have also improved but remain a concern: the jail was down by roughly 24 positions at the time of his remarks. To improve community relations and proactive prevention, the sheriff said he added a Public Affairs Bureau and reorganized duties so the jail and court functions have focused leadership.
On enforcement and prevention, Witt described a range of efforts: a new county auto-theft team; multiagency task-force seizures in 2024 that totaled about 17 pounds of powder fentanyl, opened more than 1,500 cases and resulted in about 256 felony charges; and an opioid-overdose-prevention initiative dubbed “Focus on Fentanyl.” He said the county is combining enforcement with outreach and education — including a student advisory board — because families often lack knowledge about naloxone (Narcan) and overdose response.
Witt also described jail-based programming that aims to turn “dead time” into educational and job-readiness opportunities, citing a program called HOPE (Helping Others by Providing Education) that offers GED, job-readiness and other classes in the pretrial facility.
During Q&A, council members and residents asked about privacy and policy for facial-recognition tools the sheriff’s office uses; Witt said the tool is an investigative aid that uses public databases and is accompanied by a published policy and investigative follow-up work.
The presentation was informational; council did not take action on the sheriff’s items.
