9.3. SR 11-18-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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services, and dive team and body recovery services. In general, these are the same services all sheriff's offices provide to cities which choose to have their.own police services, contracted. police services, or unincorporated jurisdictions. I'm sure some variations could be found from county to county. The Sherburne County Board also chooses to provide the Sheriff s Office with budget dollars for countywide programs or services. I would classify these services as supplemental. These are services that are subject to change from year to year depending on priority and approval of the County Board. These services are outside of the baseline services listed above and are available to all jurisdictions within the county as long as the County Board continues to fund them. Some of these include Tri-County Forensic Laboratory services, public assistance fraud investigations, computer forensics analysis, and crime analyst services. I think it's important to look back at how the DTF was created and how we have historically operated when we look at how this service is classified. When the DTF was formed back into 2005, no additional staff was added to accomplish its formation. Current personnel were reassigned from within the organization to the newly formed DTF unit. The Sheriff's Office was not provided with any additional personnel dollars at that time or since its creation through the county levy, therefore, the DTF should not be considered as a baseline or supplemental service. The DTF's main focus is conducting its operations in the townships. The DTF evaluates and prioritizes information it's given to them from the local police departments. The DTF frequently assists these agencies and conducts its investigations on their behalf It is done so in the spirit of cooperation, and the local police departments also reciprocate when we ask for assistance in other areas of enforcement. The DTF is already stretched thin for their services and are not in the position to contribute more resources to the city. However, it is not our intent to contribute less time and resources to the city regardless of the decision to add the position to next year's budget. If the city's priority is having additional narcotic investigative services that exceed our current capacity and ability to assist, it will be the city's responsibility to fund. The second question was, "If Elk River has only 25% of the county's drug problem, and why Elk River is footing 100% of the bill for the new position?" As previously mentioned, the DTF prioritizes its requests for service after conducting DTF operation in the townships and Elk River constitutes about 25% of the total cases the DTF investigates. Another way to look at it, about one full time employee (FTE), since we currently have four personnel dedicated to the unit. The amount of cases that are investigated are not commensurate with the problem. Since January 1, 2012, there have been 15 drug overdose deaths throughout the county. Of these, four were heroin overdoses that occurred within the city of Elk River and one death pending toxicology. Additionally in the city, there were 12 medical calls associated with the use of heroin/drugs. The last heroin overdose that occurred on November 1, 2013, was with two people transported to the hospital. One needs to look no further than this week's KARE I Ps reports on the subject and heroin's escalating impact on our area.