Hunter Henkels was hired as a full-time police officer and began his role as of March 6, 2023. His duties are to patrol streets, look for suspicious activity, respond to calls, and make sure people are following speed limits. (Daily calls may vary from mental health to medical to criminal.) Hunter works 3 p.m. to 3 a.m., currently, with hours subject to change depending upon the needs of the city. Henkels was a police officer in Deerwood/Ironton before being hired full-time in Eden Valley.
Henkels graduated from law enforcement school in Alexandria in 2017 and, with his degree, he began his journey in the police force as security for a hospital. The hospital paid $20 an hour for a security guard and, for 18-year-old Henkels, that was quite the deal. Henkels was there for five years until one day meeting an officer who worked for Centennial Lakes; the two spoke for a while in the ambulance garage, and the officer talked Henkels into joining the police reserve for Centennial Lakes where he worked for about a year. He got to see what the job of a police officer was like, and experience the significance of making such a difference in people’s lives. He immediately fell in love with the job and could not wait for an opening there. Henkels applied to Deerwood and enjoyed every moment of his job there.
Henkels didn’t initially want to go to school for law enforcement. He believed that the positive aspects of being an officer aren’t worth the riskier ones. “It’s not at all what it looks like on TV,” Henkels stated. What changed his outlook was a situation while working police reserve at Centennial Lakes. One night, Henkels had chosen to do a ride-along with another officer instead of doing solo patrol. The officer he was riding with had made a simple traffic stop for a stop sign violation. It turns out that the driver – a felon who had a domestic abuse no-contact order against him – had an illegally modified shotgun in the vehicle. Having made such a simple stop, removing the gun from his possession, and sending the man off to where he should rightfully be could have easily saved a woman’s life.
“I think it’s the stuff behind the scenes that makes a difference. If that traffic stop didn’t occur, who knows what could have happened?”
Henkels currently resides in Blaine. He is from Coon Rapids, near the Blaine border, and he graduated high school from Blaine. His fiancée Tori is from Eden Valley. The two met in Alexandria at college. Together they have a daughter Ellie and a black lab named Bauer. Henkels has been able to see the city and the community several times before starting his job here. Some of his first contacts on the job are people he already knew. He and his fiancée plan to buy a house in Eden Valley soon.
Henkels enjoys how supportive and helpful people in the community are to the police. When he makes a traffic stop, he often hears, “Thank you for what you do.”
He likes how tightly-knit everything is. “I’ll walk into Jack’s [gas station in town] and hear, ‘What’s up, Hunter?’ and I kinda like that.”
Henkel’s biggest challenge as a police officer in Eden Valley is getting used to the computer system that is different than the one used in Deerwood. And he has a lot more responsibility as a full-time officer here, but he’s up to the challenge.
He finds that the best part of his job is the difference that he’s able to make in people’s lives. “Whether that could be an enforcement decision, or bringing someone to the hospital, sometimes it’s getting someone that’s drunk off the road.”
He really does enjoy being a part of the community and looks forward to his long future as a police officer for the City of Eden Valley.