The State of Minnesota started the race data project as a "6-month survey" about four or five years ago.

The court administrators office MUST pass them out. You may decline to respond.

" I'M DENNY CRANE!"

Went to the courthouse yesterday to contest a ticket. I was carrying but it was actually no big deal (which felt kinda good). I walked in and handed the sheriff dep. my MN PTC. I think he was kinda new, he looked at me like "what do you want me to do with this piece of plastic?"
So I asked, "do you have a lockbox?"
At that point he realized that I was carrying and said, "oh... your the first person to ever use that! Im not sure if the key is in here..." He dug through the desk drawer for a bit and found the key, unlocked an under the desk safe, and had me come behind his desk and put it in there (holstered and loaded).
After my experience (below) with the ticket, I went to the desk and got my gun (or as the deputy called it, "my piece"). It was easy and the sheriff dep. was really nice.

The box was similar to this:


If you need to go to the Ramsey courthouse to see a Hearing Officer, you now need to schedule an appointment (as of Jan 1, 2009). I found this out the hard way. Im going back next week now. Oh well!

Thank you for this information.

In another thread we've discussed judges and their banning carrying in courthouses. Could it be that the Ramsey Co. Sheriff is providing a common sense solution to accomodate permitted individuals in their travel in and out of the courthouse? Not that this excuses the judges, but it seem to afford some consideration to the problem the legal carry community has (i.e., how to secure your weapon) in the course of business at the courthouse complex.

IMHO, at a minimum, all the counties, and municipalities should adopt this same practice.

Thanks for the info PocketProtector642.

I went back today to dispute my tickets*. The only differences were:
1. The deputy wasn't nearly as friendly
2. He had me hand him my gun and he put it in the lock box. On the way out, he took out my gun and handed it to me.
Though it was a fine experience this time, I liked my day 1 experience better.

*In St Paul it is against city ordinance to park on the street with expired tabs. They can write a new ticket for the same offence every 2 hours. The fine is $111.00 per ticket. We got 3! I brought in my recipt proving that I paid for tabs (dated after ticket # 1) and the lady took all 3 off my record! Awesome!

Very nice Dean!