St. Michael’s Hagerty Set to Take Sheriff’s Office

Wright County will have a new top dog in the sheriff's department in a few weeks as current Sheriff Gary Miller heads into retirement.

Taking the reins is Joe Hagerty, a resident of St. Michael and a 12-year veteran of the City Council.

Hagerty takes over a department that is the primary police force for both St. Michael and Albertville, along with 11 others in the 16-city county.

"We are the direct responders to more people than any other county in the state of Minnesota," Hagerty said of the Wright County Sheriff's Department. They have the third-largest office in the state, with 140 sworn deputies and the largest patrol division in the entire state.

"It's large but we're strong," said Lt. Dan Anselment, one of Hagerty's longtime colleagues. "We're tight knit."

Hagerty has been a member of the Wright County Sheriff's Department since 1985. Over the last 25 years, he has served in almost every capacity–corrections officer/jailer, a dispatcher and patrol officer and eventually working his way up to sergeant and then lieutenant.

Four years ago, he became Wright County's chief deputy. Last summer, he decided to throw his hat in the ring for county sheriff. No one opposed him, and he was easily elected in November's election.

Hagerty said he fell into the law enforcement field by chance. He was tossing around several different career ideas, everything from a meat cutter to a political science major. He took a course in law enforcement at North Hennepin Community College in 1983 and he was hooked. After completing his education and training, he set out looking for a job in the difficult job market of the mid-1980s. He applied to 80 law enforcement agencies and was eventually hired by Wright County.

He is the son of Tom Hagerty, a man who also knew about public service, sitting on various township and community boards for the better part of 35 years.

"They have a sense of duty to the community that is very rare," said Bob Derus, city administrator for St. Michael. "Joe's going to be missed. He's been one of the best council members I've had the privilege to work with."

Hagerty wrapped up his third term on the St. Michael City Council this year. When he chose to run for sheriff, he took himself out of the running for city council (an elected official can't hold two offices). 

As the sheriff, Hagerty will oversee the safety of a county with 120,000 people. He will operate the jail, run a dispatch center, investigate recreational vehicle accidents and run civil processes such as serving legal papers such as foreclosures.

Though Hagerty said crime has been pretty low in St. Michael and Albertville, he noted car break-ins are one of the area's biggest problems. Usually the car is unlocked when broken into, though sometimes windows are broken into. St. Michael has one of the lowest service-calls-per-capita in the county with many calls coming from false alarms in home security systems. Albertville keeps the department a bit busier with the outlet mall and its 4.5 million annual visitors, a popular bar scene and more high-density housing.

Many of those issues he's seen from both sides, both as a council member and a member of the sheriff's department.

"It's going to be a pretty seamless transition. I'll be working with a lot of councils," Hagerty said. "I kind of know how the process works."

In both busy times and quiet times, Hagerty said he is looking forward to his four-year term serving as the county's sheriff. Though he ran unopposed, he still campaigned at all the city festivals and the Wright County Fair, distributed campaign literature door-to-door and attended community forums to help county residents to familiarize themselves with him and the department in general.

"We want people to be comfortable calling us; we need people to call us to report things," he said. "I plan on being out a lot, and I plan on working hard."