Washington County attorney outlines crime trends, juvenile trafficking work and digital evidence use

Kevin Magnuson, Washington County attorney, told the Forest Lake City Council on an evening presentation that his office receives roughly 1,500 law-enforcement referrals a year and charges about 75 percent of those cases.

Magnuson said the office prosecutes about 1,200 charged cases annually and that most prosecutions end in plea agreements rather than trials. "I don't think of a plea agreement as selling out," he said, adding that his office tries to match the punishment to the facts of each case.

The county attorney placed public safety at the top of the office's priorities and described several trends the office has tracked, including a spike in motor-vehicle thefts during the COVID period and an increase in people fleeing from officers. "You can go from 35 in 2018 to a hundred and 11 in 2022. We're down to 75, but we're — I mean, that is just crazy too high," Magnuson said, calling vehicle pursuits "dangerous for everybody."

Magnuson also described juvenile crime patterns that rose during pandemic school closures and said the office has created dedicated juvenile prosecutors for vehicle-theft and related cases. He said the county now focuses on runaway children and on early digital-investigative tools to locate missing minors. He cited a 2024 case in which investigators used location data from a messaging app to find a 14-year-old at a Newport motel and arrest a suspect.

On human-trafficking enforcement, Magnuson described local sting and recovery operations that aim not only to arrest buyers and traffickers but also to provide victim recovery services. He noted a new shelter in Oakdale — "Corey's House" — being licensed to provide residential care for juvenile victims of trafficking and said such long-term services are needed beyond emergency sheltering.

Magnuson discussed technology used by police, including license-plate reader networks and so-called "Flock" cameras. He said the cameras can be effective but warned that data-sharing arrangements with private entities raise statutory data-retention and control issues that cities and counties must manage.

He also noted a recent statutory change that created a distinct carjacking offense in 2023 and said Washington County had not yet charged a person under the new statute. "Carjacking didn't become a specific crime until 2023. We have yet to charge a person under the 2023 carjacking statute," Magnuson said.

Magnuson closed by describing the county attorney's office staffing and training efforts, including a two-year in-house training program for law enforcement and continuing emphasis on case-by-case assessment of public-safety risk.

The presentation was given during the council's "awards and presentations" portion of the meeting; council members thanked Magnuson for the briefing and for the county's partnership with the Forest Lake Police Department.