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Expanding location of criminal arrests

Published (2/11/2011)
By Mike Cook
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Part of Hanover is in Hennepin County, and part is in Wright County.

Because it doesn’t have its own police department, the city contracts with the sheriff’s department of each county. However, while each department can patrol the entire city, officers cannot issue citations throughout.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Joyce Peppin (R-Rogers) seeks to change that.

Approved Feb. 9 by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee, HF180 next goes to the House Judiciary Policy and Finance Committee. It has no Senate companion.

The bill would allow an officer from either county to issue a citation in the community as if it happened in the officer’s home county.

“We feel the current system is inefficient,” said Hanover City Administrator Daniel Buchholtz.

Currently, law enforcement personnel from either county can issue a citation in another jurisdiction if it is within 1,500 feet of the boundary line between the two counties. This becomes problematic in towns like Hanover when an officer from Hennepin County, for example, responds to an incident further into parts of the city that are in Wright County.

“Right now if a Hennepin County deputy responds to a domestic dispute in Wright County portion of Hanover outside of that buffer they can intervene, but then they can’t make the arrest,” Buchholtz said. “They have to call the Wright County dispatch center and have a Wright County deputy come out and actually write the citation.”

Additionally, current law requires a municipality to charge the offense in the county where the offense occurred. Charging in multiple county seats can cause extra expense and inconvenience to multi-county municipalities. The bill would permit the charging to occur in either the county of the offense or the home county of the arresting law enforcement agency.

Buchholtz said the bill could also reduce law enforcement costs in cities like Hanover, because the city could bid its law enforcement contract against the two sheriff’s departments.

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