Minneapolis will be battleground and crime strategy hot spot in Hennepin County sheriff's race

Dawanna Witt and Joseph Banks are battling to take over the sprawling Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, which runs the largest jail in Minnesota, handles court security and helps the county's 46 cities investigate and prevent crime.

Sheriff David Hutchinson remains on medical leave, so the new sheriff will be stepping into an office that has been without a leader for nearly a year.

Both campaigns have focused on stemming the violent crime surge in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs, which has emerged as a flashpoint issue after the police killing of George Floyd and a hollowing out of the Minneapolis police force that came afterward.

Policing the county's central city historically has not been a core duty of the Sheriff's Office, but it has become more of one in recent years as crime soared, shaking some residents' faith in the ability to adequately police Minneapolis.

"If we don't get things under control, it is everybody's problem," Witt said. "Bullets don't have names on them. People committing crime don't have a moral compass."

Witt said they agency must be fluid and adapt because the "one-size-fits-all way" hasn't been working.

Banks, too, sees Minneapolis as an emerging focus. "Why is it so hard to come to Minneapolis and help out? I would maneuver my manpower to get after crime hot spots."

Witt and Banks have taken different paths in their law enforcement careers. Witt, a major with the Sheriff's Office, became the first female captain when she worked for the Dakota County Sheriff's Office. Banks was a former acting police chief of an American Indian community but is now a bail agent.

Whoever wins, voters will be selecting the county's first sheriff of color since the office was created in 1852.

The winner will take over an agency with a $130 million budget and have an opportunity to remake the office after outgoing Hutchinson crashed a county-owned SUV while driving drunk in December.

Witt, 48, oversees the two largest divisions in the Sheriff's Office, court security and adult detention. She teaches juvenile justice and American corrections at Inver Hills Community College and is on a state advisory panel on child protection and law enforcement education reform.

"You can't ask people to do things you wouldn't do," she said. "Why shouldn't it be me to get us out of this mess? I let people know this just isn't a job."

Witt received 57% of the vote in the primary election. Banks, a former acting chief of the Lower Sioux Indian Community and police chief in Morton, Minn., narrowly defeated Bloomington police officer Jai Hanson by 2 points.

In his youth, Banks, 52, watched how several of his relatives who were police officers interacted with kids. Those positive experiences with police contrast with youth today being taught that law enforcement is bad, he said.

This is why he would push for his deputies to volunteer for afterschool youth programs. It would give teens a chance to get to know the police in the community and talk about any problems at home and what's going on in the community, he said.

An area that Banks and Witt agree on is that the Sheriff's Office needs to have a robust recruitment program. Witt said it's difficult to help enforce preventive crime measures for other agencies without a larger personnel pool.

Banks wants to hire more people who live in the community in order to lower the teaching bar about local issues. He also wants to attach a deputy to each police agency, which should expedite requests for support.

He said he would lead by example, actively patrolling so he can see what deputies are going through and engage with the community. The Sheriff's Office can show more discretion with who they issue a ticket to or bring to jail or if they can find another way to resolve an incident.

"We don't have any hidden rules that a deputy has to issue 25 tickets a day," he said.

Officer accountability and department transparency will continue to be a top priority, Witt said. Wearing a uniform and badge doesn't give that person permission to do wrong, she said.

"It's important for the agency to get a fresh start, and I can hit the ground running," she said.

Stepping aside from law enforcement for several years gave Banks the best chance to see what needed to be fixed, he said. He was able to examine several police-involved deaths and believes the Sheriff's Office has the ability to hold other agencies accountable. That could include having a task force that would investigate incidents and send them to the state's Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training.