Community Engagement at the Houghton County Sheriff’s Office is a foundational element of our ability to realize our organizational mission. Embracing our role as a service organization, “engagement” describes how we perform our duties, and how we interact with and relate to the residents of Houghton County. We believe that we exist to serve our community, making our community a safer place and contributing to the improvement of everyone’s quality of life. Community Engagement isn’t just a program. It is how we communicate, build trust, identify needs, and collaboratively work side by side with our partners to create interventions and provide solutions.

Whether it's a small intimate setting where a deputy sits with a community member over lunch or a room full of people discussing solutions, our office has worked tirelessly to balance traditional law enforcement responses with non-traditional responses and to enhance what you see when you look at the badge. All of this was designed as a systemic approach to engaging our community. We are not just the Sheriff’s Office, we are the People’s Sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Joshua Saaranen