Endorsement: For Hennepin County sheriff, Rich Stanek

In many cases, when residents of Minnesota's most populous county need first responder or law enforcement assistance, they turn to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. It provides dispatch services and fire and police for 37 of the county's communities while also operating the county jail, water patrol and crime lab. Its staff also protects district courts and serves warrants.

Sheriff Rich Stanek has ably led those efforts for nearly eight years, and he deserves to be re-elected despite the many attributes of his opponent, Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Eddie Frizell.

Stanek, 52, says his priorities include crime reduction, reaching out to diverse communities and advocating for public safety legislation. The department has made progress in each of those areas during his tenure.

For example, although many factors account for the 36 percent drop in violent crime in the county, the Sheriff's Office deserves its share of the credit. In addition, in response to a sharp increase in heroin use, Stanek successfully championed legislation to allow officers to carry and use the drug naloxone to prevent overdose deaths.

Other notable accomplishments include the county effort to collect unwanted medications to prevent abuse and to promote safe disposal. And, under Stanek's leadership, the crime lab has become more efficient and stronger partnerships have been built with other law enforcement agencies.

Stanek has a long history of mixing policing with public policy. He began his career as a Minneapolis cop, rose to the rank of captain and spent several years as a Republican legislator and chair of the House Public Safety Committee.

Critics accuse Stanek of empire building and frequent grandstanding. He was criticized for producing a video that praised his department's response following the I-35W bridge collapse, while failing to mention the work of other law enforcement partners. And some will never forget insensitive racial remarks from his past that ultimately forced him to step down as commissioner of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) in 2004.

Stanek rightly acknowledges that his department needs to become more diverse. About 20 percent of the department's employees are women and about 9.5 percent are minority. That's a 2-percentage-point increase over the past seven years, but still below community parity levels. Stanek should use the expected wave of baby boomer retirements to make the department more representative of those it serves.

The sheriff would do well to work on the morale issues that Frizell has highlighted during the campaign. The Sheriff's Deputies Association — the union that represents 300 deputies, crime-lab technicians and detectives in the county — voted to endorse Frizell because of frustrations with scheduling and morale.

Frizell, 51, is a veteran Minneapolis cop and a National Guard colonel who did tours in Iraq and Kuwait. He says he's running to bring more of a local focus to the department and because he believes its $91 million budget could be spent more effectively. He cites the deputy sheriffs' concerns as evidence that new leadership is needed. And he believes that increases to the administrative budget have been made at the expense of patrol and public engagement functions.

Likable and engaging, Frizell has the knowledge, capability and temperament to effectively lead a law enforcement agency. He should continue to pursue that kind of executive position — in either an elected or an appointed post.

Hennepin County residents have two good choices in this race, but we give the edge to the incumbent.