Oak Grove officials hear sheriff—s —Meet the Deputy—; prosecutor flags rising competency reviews and DWI trends

Chief Deputy Bill Jacobson of the Anoka County Sheriff—s Office introduced the deputies assigned to Oak Grove and said the county and city partnership that supplies four full-time contracted deputies will continue in 2025.

The update came during the Oak Grove City Council meeting on Feb. 10, when Jacobson and other sheriff—s office representatives presented staffing, monthly call statistics and answered council questions about immigration-detainer policies and traffic enforcement. City Prosecutor Scott Baumgartner also presented annual disposition statistics and described shifts prosecutors and police are seeing in DWI cases and competency proceedings. Public works and county engineering staff described an upcoming Viking Boulevard (County Road 22) construction bid and options for temporary traffic patterns; a resident raised a separate dispute about monthly streetlight charges and was told the city can consider a neighborhood petition to remove lights.

Why it matters: Oak Grove officials and residents received both operational detail (who will patrol the city and basic monthly crime counts) and trend information that affects public safety planning: prosecutors and the sheriff—s office signaled more time-consuming DUI and competency matters that can take deputies off patrol and add workload to the courts, while planned county road construction could shift regional traffic onto local streets.

Chief Deputy Bill Jacobson told the council Oak Grove remains staffed by four full-time deputies working 12-hour rotations and praised the local partnership: "we are proud of our partnership with the city of Oak Grove going on 30 some years now." He introduced Deputies Jason Corlew, Kurt Grabmire, Elliot Korth and Mason Waldera and Sergeant Justin Nelson, and described current hiring as strong: "we are currently not hiring for licensed deputy...we are short 3 right now and we interviewed about 10 for those 3 spots and ended up making 3 job offers." The sheriff—s office also presented January statistics: 243 calls for service, 41 medicals, 162 traffic stops (26 traffic arrests), 14 property-damage accidents and a variety of thefts, assaults and other incidents.

On immigration-detainer questions Jacobson told the council the "sanctuary county" label stemmed from an old Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document and is not an active county designation. He also noted Minnesota law limits local detention based solely on ICE detainers: "in Minnesota it is against the law for us to hold somebody only on an ice detainer," he said, adding the county coordinates with federal partners when lawful and appropriate.

Prosecutor Scott Baumgartner reviewed the 2024 disposition statistics the city receives annually and highlighted several trends he said worry prosecutors countywide. He reported gross-misdemeanor DUI counts have fallen from 24 to 13 in recent reporting and said misdemeanor DUIs were at typical levels; but Baumgartner said the office is seeing a noticeable increase in "Rule 20" competency evaluation requests and in high blood-alcohol concentrations. "Rule 20s...we're seeing a big increase in Anoka County," he said, and added that DWI blood-alcohol readings are trending higher in some cases, with some results in other jurisdictions exceeding 0.3. Baumgartner said controlled-substance DWIs also appear to be more common and that legalization of marijuana raises enforcement and evidentiary questions because there is not yet an established roadside benchmark analogous to alcohol—s 0.08 limit.

Council members pressed for operational details. A lieutenant from the sheriff—s office explained a typical DUI response can be lengthy: field sobriety testing, report writing and transporting a person to the county jail are time-consuming and can take a deputy off patrol for an hour or more; drive time to Anoka adds to the total. That workload was cited by the prosecutor and council as part of the rationale for seeking programming options and treatment alternatives when appropriate.

Fire Chief (name on file) updated the council on department activity and training. The department reported 669 calls in 2024 (including 364 medical incidents, 41 vehicle accidents and 24 building fires), a recent successful CPR resuscitation and use of a Lucas device. The chief said the department carries Narcan and has used it; the council discussed grant opportunities and the county's opioid-settlement funds that could supply durable equipment, training or supplies over multiple years.

City engineer staff briefed the council on Anoka County—s planned Viking Boulevard (CR 22) project between the bridge and Orchid Street, expected to be bid in spring and built over the summer. The county currently plans to bid the work with two-way traffic maintained on CR 22 during construction but indicated it may negotiate a one-way option with the contractor to shorten the schedule; that plan would route eastbound traffic onto 190th Avenue (a local road) for part of the work. Council members and staff expressed safety and pavement-impact concerns about diverting heavy traffic onto 190th Avenue and asked county staff to appear at the next council meeting with specifics about temporary controls, truck routing and any compensation for wear and tear on the local street.

During public comment resident Mitch Finnell of Cottonwood Street asked why he and nearby homeowners receive an annual streetlight bill if they do not see a light on their block. City staff said the city took over utility billing in 2018 and now sends annual bills to several developments where lights were required during subdivision approvals. Staff told Finnell the city will accept a neighborhood petition and consider turning off lights if a majority of affected residents request removal; they offered to provide a parcel map and sample petition language to Finnell.

Administrative items and votes: the council approved a small correction to a minor-subdivision resolution (Richter—s) and then approved meeting minutes for Jan. 27, 2025, and the consent agenda (items a through g) in a single motion. Each measure passed on voice votes, recorded as 3-0 in the transcript. The council set a public hearing for Feb. 24 on a draft humane pet shop ordinance and scheduled an architect update on the city building design for the next meeting.

The meeting closed with council reminders about open public participation, a parks-commission vacancy and the council—s next regular meeting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 24.

Next steps: county engineers were asked to return with a detailed detour and traffic-control plan for the Viking Boulevard project; staff will provide the resident who asked about streetlights with the petition template and map; and the city will publish the packet for the Feb. 24 hearing on the humane pet shop ordinance.