Hennipin County

[bto35]

Hi
Does Hennipin County start their deputys in the jail or do they go right to the road?????

[SCSU10]

from what I know they start in the jail but others might be able to help more.

[fg-trs]

Hennepin County starts their deputies anyplace but the road. You will be in the jail, a baliff, transportation deputy, or in warrants before you hit the road. Hitting the road isn't anything special since they police small unincorporated cow towns. Getting to the road takes several years.

Jail is first for everyone. Courts is usually the next stop. There are a lot of opportunities to do different things but there is also plenty of competition. The patrol division is just one option, and they do quite a bit more then police small unincorporated cow towns. Jail, courts, warrants, transport, civil, water patrol, narcotics, investigations, crime lab, communications, ESU, homeland security, admin, patrol, etc.

[AR-15]

I worked for Hennepin County for 3 1/2 years and then I went to St. Paul. And now I am in the state of Washington as a police officer. IF I would have stayed at the county, I would have 10 1/2 years there. Some units/divisions are senority based, the more senior, the more you can bid for. To answer your question, some new deputies start in the jail like I did and some start in court security. The majority of deputies in the jail are detention deputies(not licensed police officers). There are a few licensed deputies in the jail to do transports of inmates to the hospital. I worked in the jail for 1 1/2 years and then 2 years in courts.

Divisions like patrol, warrants, and civil process were senority based. In order to work warrants, you had to have "street experience". At the time, "street experience" counted as working in transport or building security, which was based out of court security.

This may have changed under Sheriff Stanek.

Just a side note for people considering going into law enforcement, it is not for everyone. When I was with St. Paul, I saw a lot of people wash out of FTO because they were not confident enough or did not have the people skills out of the academy. I felt that some of the recruits would have done fine if they had some people skills they could learned in a more controlled environment such as a jail.

There were a lot of deputies who will never work the street or did not want to. Some were happy with the 9 to 5, Monday-Friday court security assignment, nothing against them. That's their choice.....

[HEDP]

I talked to a deputy for Hennepin County yesterday and asked him this very question.

He said you do 5-7 yrs doing jail, court and other stuff before you hit the road. He's been in 10 years. He said if he could do it again he wouldn't have.

[AR-15]

I talked to a deputy for Hennepin County yesterday and asked him this very question.

He said you do 5-7 yrs doing jail, court and other stuff before you hit the road. He's been in 10 years. He said if he could do it again he wouldn't have.

After 10 years, it makes it hard to leave. Like I said, a deputy with Hennepin or Ramsey is not for everyone because they start in the jail. If a person is set on working for a sheriff's office, try Washington, Chisago, or Anoka if you want to work the road right away. There have been a lot of deputies that have left Hennepin and gone on to other departments. When I left for St. Paul, another deputy left with me. 2 deputies left a month later and 1 deputy left a month before me. I know St. Paul has a lot of Hennepin alumni. I have no regrets about leaving....There are a lot of good people who work for Hennepin though..

[HCdetdep]

I talked to a deputy for Hennepin County yesterday and asked him this very question.

He said you do 5-7 yrs doing jail, court and other stuff before you hit the road. He's been in 10 years. He said if he could do it again he wouldn't have.

Actually it is more like 1.5-2 years until you even get out of jail. Right now, everyone starts in the jail unless you're either a close personal friend of somebody or there's simply not enough hired to start a jail class they might just put you in courts, but since I've started 3 years ago, everyone but 1 person hired as licensed deputy has started in the jail. The jail does have some advantages too though. As somebody posted earlier, it's great experience dealing with a variety of people. It's pretty easy $$$. You make more than a detention deputy and do almost the same job except hospital runs, working the front desk and some things like that.
You also may like the 6 on 3 off schedule. Many licensed guys stick around because of that when they could be off to other divisions where they worked 5-2.
Another bonus if you're an overtime hound is there is pretty much as much OT as you can get...On my shift there's guys "maxing" out every week with 16hrs and making a nice bonus on top of their regular checks...that's another reason why a lot of deps come back from other divisions. They simply don't have OT like that anywhere else.

Hope this helps.

[Wilkinotti]

Ramsey no longer starts Deps. in the jail. All the licensed Deputies have been moved to Courts, although no new Deputies have been hired since that move. Folks are getting out to patrol in less than four years.

[DetDep]

I'm going to second what my (former) esteemed colleague HCDETDEP stated.

The experience that you will gain working in the jail will, in my opinion, far outweigh the inconvenience of having to wait a few years to hit the road. Even if you do what so many others do and spend your first few years with the county (working the jail), then lateral over to another agency, you will be light years ahead in your interpersonal communication skills.

Remember that turnkeys live with the crooks. I've seen many people come in with an attitude that they can treat the inmates however they want. Most of them learn that that doesn't fly. Instead, they learn how to relate to different types of people, and to command respect without coming off as a blowhard.

Plus, while in jail, you'll hone your ground fighting skills. On the whole, especially on the dogwatch, we go hands on a lot more than an average officer. Now, it's different because the odds of the inmate having a weapon are significantly less than it would be for an officer on the street, but it's still great training.

Please don't take this as me saying that jailers are in any way better trained than cops. It's just different training that makes, in my opinion, for a great spring board into other law enforcement training. As I move forward in my LE career, I'm thankful for the few years I spent counting spoons. I think I learned a lot that will help me to become a more effective officer.

Plus, a few years working in the jail should give you time to learn how to spell the name of the most populous county in the state.

[xsquid98]

..........

[xsquid98]

Plus, a few years working in the jail should give you time to learn how to spell the name of the most populous county in the state.

Nice, had to be said. From one HC ex turn-key to another (hopefully future ex-turn-key). ha ha ha

[Hammer5]

Can any of you guys who work for Hennepin (spelling) county tell us what we might expect in the interview? They said they wanted us to allow for an hour and 15 minutes, most other cop interviews are 15-20 minutes long.

[Filly]

From yet another former turnkey: If you want to work for a big political machine, be subject to blatant cronyism, feel like a character in "1984" and have little to no shot of ever doing actual police work, then by all means go right to work for HCSO. They will love you for it, especially after about 4 years when the golden handcuffs start to slide on.

Man I did love the jail though. In a wierd way. I heard they painted over the wall of shame. Too bad, there was a lot of history there.

[HCdetdep]

Yup, the Wall of Shame is no longer... :-(

[Stewie]

I have been looking into working for HC Dentention, does anyone know the average starting salary? How often do they hire for Detention?