Minnehaha County Commission

An equal justice statue sits outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Minnehaha County votes to bolster prosecutors, public defense

BY: - March 21, 2023

SIOUX FALLS – Federal grant funding from the Violence Against Women Act could soon bring a domestic violence specialist to the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office to help shepherd victims through the criminal justice system. The Minnehaha County Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to allow State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar to apply for a Services, Training, […]

The sign for the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds, as pictured on Dec. 12, 2022, in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Consultant: $100 million Expo building replacement would secure fairgrounds future

BY: - December 12, 2022

A $100 million investment in the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds Expo building would translate into another 100 days of use each year and another half-million dollars in economic impact for the Sioux Falls area. Those figures represented just a few of the conclusions from a consultant who presented to a Monday meeting of the Minnehaha County […]

Southeastern Behavioral Health's downtown Sioux Falls facility, pictured on Nov. 25, 2022. Southeastern is the partner for the mobile crisis team, whose counselors assist law enforcement with certain mental health calls.

Declining use of mobile crisis team is good and bad news for Sioux Falls area

BY: - November 25, 2022

Just over a decade ago, police in Sioux Falls began a partnership with Southeastern Behavioral Health that allowed counselors to take over for officers during mental health crisis calls. The goal of that mobile crisis team (MCT) was to de-escalate situations where a caller had expressed thoughts of suicide or self-harm by working through the […]