MOORHEAD (KFGO/KVRR) – Top area law enforcement officials gathered in Moorhead to share current trends in crime and policing in the region.
Some of the topics revolved around mental health issues, and the importance of mutual aid between law enforcement agencies.
Retention was also a topic of discussion. It’s something that is an issue in both North Dakota and Minnesota.
“284 agencies are looking for officers,” Clay County Sheriff Mark Empting said. “A lot of those agencies are looking for more than two officers. A lot of them are looking for multiple. If you think about that, that’s over 70% of the agencies across the state of Minnesota who are currently short staffed.”
While most of the departments said certain crime numbers have dropped from last year, places like West Fargo dealt with an increase.
“That always happens when you have population growth such as we have,” West Fargo Police Chief Pete Nielsen said. “We’re definitely going to look at those areas. Look at what we have that are the concerns and try to figure out some strategic planning on how we can try and make sure those numbers go back down.”
When it comes to mental health calls in the region, Chief Zibolski suggested the state step in to provide help for those struggling.
“The issue is that we’ve got a huge gap in mental health,” Zibolski said. “We have a lot of front-end services but we don’t have any residential treatment facilities for longer term care. So for people that are in a chronic situation, continually going for an evaluation and they walk right back out and they right back in the same environment they were in without getting any treatment that they need.”
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