Retirement Party Held For West Fargo Police Chief Denis Otterness

WEST FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – West Fargo Police Department celebrates Chief Denis Otterness as he is just days away from retiring.

Otterness has been West Fargo police Department’s chief of police since September of 2020.

“Chief Otterness is an exceptional leader, he’s been very instrumental to a lot of programs that have come to place within the police department he is one that holds his honor his integrity at a very high level he as chief police will be missed greatly.” Said Assistant Chief of Police Pete Nielsen about his partner. 

Since his time in West Fargo the chief has been a big part in implementing new programs to help the department move in a positive direction.

“He’s brought in different type of platforms social media to hire more officers, he put in a very good emphasis on our schools and our school resource officers so everything he has done over the past 3 years have been very positive for the community and very positive for the police department.” Said Nielsen.

Some of the programs include the body worn camera program, an enhanced cardiac screening program, and West Fargo’s first public transparency dashboard.

“This is a fantastic department to work for, our leadership team is second to none, the staff we have working here is incredible just there work ethic, they’re humble they go out and police our community the right way. So we enjoy a lot of support from our community.” said West Fargo’s Chief of Police Denis Otterness.

Chief Otterness will begin his retirement on October 6th.

Otterness plans to move to Arizona after his retirement.