Finalists For West Fargo Police Chief Talk Police Reform & Diversity

Police reform and diversity have become a priority in many conversations.

WEST FARGO, N.D. – Interim Chief Jerry Boyer and Montana State University-Billings Police Chief Denis Otterness got the chance to hear the community voice their concerns.

Some of the questions included Having more diversity in law enforcement, police reform and even their talking about their favorite hobbies.

Police reform and diversity have become a priority in many conversations between city leaders, law enforcement and communities and the West Fargo Police Department is not an exception.

“Do I think we have a problem in our department? No. Do I still think we need to be proactive and take a look at ourselves and take a look at our profession? Yes, we do,” says West Fargo Interim Chief Jerry Boyer.

Ways they say they can be proactive is by improving their recruiting and form of processes.

“Nationwide we’re seeing an issue with recruiting across all races, so we’re trying to figure out a way where we can successfully recruit more applicants from every diverse culture that we have, so that’s something that we’re working on and we’re continuing to work on,” says Montana State University-Billings Police Chief Denis Otterness.

“We’re experiencing things that every police department in the country is experiencing. We’re trying to diversify our departments. So, I think we need to look at how we recruit, because having police officers today vs hiring police officers 30 years ago when I started, it’s completely different,” Otterness adds.

Boyer says the conversations go beyond just the department.

“We’re taking a proactive approach in West Fargo as a city, not just as a department as far as trying to look at and have an open and honest dialogue and move forward from that,” says Boyer.

City Administrator Tina Fisk will make a final recommendation of who should get the job to the West Fargo City Commission.