Notes by Tammy
Date: March 12, 2018
From The Podium:
Paul shared his Rotary story.
Opioid kits [for disposal of drugs] will be purchased by the Foundation. At a recent Foundation Meeting a $1000 grant was approved for this fund. Our Club had already approved a $500 donation and challenged the Foundation to match that – however – the Foundation felt it was more within the realm of the mission of the Foundation to approve the entire amount!
The Foundation Board asks that you make any request for funds/grants for your chosen organization be made ASAP at the beginning of the year.
Also the Foundation would like a page on the website for Foundation information exchange {?}
Comments/Announcements from the floor:
Seth shares that he went to PETS training over the past weekend and he is feeling energized about the coming year and realizes what a great job Bob and Mark have done as Rotary Presidents!
Happy Bucks:
Mark – is happy that Orono won the Class A Hockey Tournament!!
Karen – is happy that Children First was able to raise $87,000 at the Breakfast 2 weeks ago J
Amy – says thank you to Shady who created an online application for Rotary scholarships.
Guests:
Robert Fisher – a guest of Marks who is with Rightway Travel
John Collins – with Hennepin County, here assisting Captain Turpitt with set-up today.
SPEAKER TOPIC: HENNEPIN COUNTY CRIME LAB
Captain Todd Turpitt
Hennepin County Sheriff’s Dept / Dedicated to Public Safety
- Todd has been with the Sheriff’s Dept for 27 years – 20 years in Investigations
- The Sheriff’s Dept was incorporated in 1852 – since then there have been 27 different Sheriffs, however only 3 different Sheriffs in the past 70 years.
- Hennepin County stats: 1.3M residents, 556 sq miles, 104 lakes and 3 rivers, 280 miles of lakes and water front, 45 cities and 1 unorganized territory [Ft. Snelling], 36 police depts. and 8 Federal law partners
- The Sherriff is the chief law officer in the county and his job is to keep the peace!
- On the leadership team, working with the Sherriff, are a Chief Deputy and 4 Majors
- There are 8 lines of business within the Sheriff’s Dept.
Jail – Court services – Patrol – Warrants – Civil Process – Investigations – 911 Dispatch – Crime Lab
- Todd speaks at length about the Crime Lab
- Why is there a Crime Lab?
Increased need for forensic services – science as proof
Increase in the % of crimes in Hennepin Co. [especially violent crime]
A need to assist the BCA crime lab
It has a strong impact on public safety
Through the DNA data base [CODIS] there has been great success in I.D.ing criminal offenders
The crime lab goes back to 1960 (pictures shown of the several vehicles that have been used)
The Crime Lab is available 24/7/365 and will be on the scene not only for Hennepin Co. but throughout the State
- The budget for the Lab is 4.6M annually, they have 39.5 employees - 18 deputies, 21.5 civilians
- The lab processed 2700 cases last year and there were 5770 requests for services
- Over 60% of the cases investigated are related to property crimes
- The Lab passes strict accreditation, which insures the highest standards are met. This is required to receive Federal grant funds and is needed to perform DNA analysis
- There are 6 sections in the Crime Lab
Evidence Section – handles, stores and disposes all evidence and documents – chain of
custody.
Firearms / Toolmark Section – exams, functions, testing of firearms.Firearms Reference
Collections for which they have 3000 different firearms to use for reference
Multimedia Section – pictorial evidence and record keeping of all photograph and
graphics.161,000 pictures taken in 2016
Latent Print Section – 220M prints stored nationwide on file [palm print cards] They
have a 25% hit rate for identifying criminals [old cases]
Biology Section – exams and identifies samples – 65% hit rate – 398 entries in 2016
Crime Lab Section – see above.
