She now lives in Minneapolis’ Loring Park neighborhood. Witt became a licensed peace officer and started her career at the Dakota County Sheriff’s office in 2004, where she worked in a variety of roles for the next 14 years. “There was an ah-ha light when I was like, ‘You can go back to school and do this,’” Witt said. She said that was crucial in her development, because she had been afraid of police officers growing up. Witt worked with and got to know police officers at the jail. “They’re going to know who my uncles are.” “Mentally I thought there’s no way they’re going to accept me,” she said. The supervisors would know that some of her family members had been through the jail. Witt applied thinking she wouldn’t get the job. “The person who did the tour, she talked about how they needed women and specifically more women of color in that field,” Witt said. She first worked in social services after college, then took a job as a detention deputy, which doesn’t require a police license, for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in 2000 after she toured the jail. Witt obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemical dependency and family therapy from St.

A social worker helped Witt form a social support system as she raised her daughter, and a program supporting teen parents at Minneapolis South High School allowed Witt to bring her daughter to school for child care. As the second oldest of five children, Witt said she took on a caretaker role for her younger siblings early in life.

Hennepin county jail roster