Dave Hutch

My name is Dave Hutchinson, and I am running for Sheriff of Hennepin County. Hennepin County is where I live and work. I have spent most of my 15-year career as police officer working in Hennepin County, and I am a homeowner in Bloomington.

My experience as both a police officer and a police supervisor has driven me to run for Sheriff. I have spent my career working in the inner city; some of the poorest and most forgotten neighborhoods of Hennepin County. I am very fortunate that the same experience has allowed me to work with the most diverse neighborhoods in Hennepin County, from recent immigrants and refugees to long-established families of Minneapolis. I work with everybody, and that has shown me that I need to run for Sheriff.

Why? Well, the current Sheriff has been in office for over 12 years. He knows nothing other than a very outdated model of policing, based on his experience being a Minneapolis cop in the 90’s. Transparency? Responsiveness to community needs? Flexibility? No- that’s not him. Those are some of my core values, and they are lacking in the current administration. I am running because Hennepin County needs a Sheriff that will respond to everybody, all neighbors, no matter where they come from or what they look like.

Here are values to which I am committed:

- Respect for everybody. That means responding effectively to the needs of all people, of all backgrounds. I will require Crisis Intervention Training for all Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) staff, and I will reevaluate HCSO’s relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

- Transparency. Nothing dissolves trust faster than hiding information without just reason. I will hire the best people, promote the best people, and I will trust them to always be able to explain what they do.

- Flexibility. The HCSO needs leadership that both understands and changes with society’s requirements of law enforcement. I will ensure that the HCSO operates on the best practices of now, not the 90’s.

Here are some highlights of my professional and personal life:

- 15 years of experience as a sworn police officer, 5 of which have been as a police sergeant.

- Police supervision training, including FBI-LEEDA and MN BCA training for upper management.

- Membership in law enforcement cultural associations.

Endorsed by the Stonewall DFL-Teamsters (labor endorsed).

I love this profession, and I love what we (law enforcement and neighbors) are able to accomplish together. That said, I believe that we can be better, and we ALL are better when we work together for the common goal of safe, healthy communities.