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Hennepin County report warns licensed-officer candidate pool will shrink; recommends regional hiring and nonlicensed roles
Summary
Hennepin County HR presented projections showing a 10‑year decline in candidates for licensed law‑enforcement positions and recommended coordinated regional recruitment, workforce planning, expanded nonlicensed roles and shared services to close staffing gaps. The committee accepted a donation to the sheriff’s office and approved minutes.
Hennepin County’s Law, Safety and Justice Committee on April 26 received a county HR study projecting a long‑term decline in the pool of candidates eligible to be hired as licensed law‑enforcement officers and a widening gap between budgeted positions and available hires.
Jovanna Kone, chief human resources officer for Hennepin County, told the committee the HR team used Minnesota POST Board licensing data, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office records, peer‑agency submissions and national sources to make five‑ and 10‑year projections of licensed‑officer availability, retirements and hiring costs. “We do not expect that there will be enough candidates to hire to fill the future need,” Kone said.
The report traces roughly 20 years of POST Board data and shows a roughly 10‑year decline in the number of candidates passing licensing exams. Kone explained that some hires in recent years drew on a three‑year window of eligible candidates — a lag that has temporarily allowed hires to exceed same‑year exam passes — but said the underlying trend points to…
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