Fargo Police wants new HQ; master plan vote passes through city commission

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The Fargo Police Department is asking for a new headquarters after only four years in their current space off 25th St. N. Listing issues such as unsecured parking, location affecting response time and site security.

“Even if we stayed where we were right now we would be landlocked and hamstrung with what we have,” said Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski. “We’re not servicing the whole city in a way that we want to service it. We’re pulling our cops from the far south end. Everything we have is on the north end of the city. Some of those facilities, like our evidence storage is not sufficient to best practices and standards.”

A vote on Tuesday by the Fargo City Commissioners was four to one in favor of the police department’s masterplan to have the construction and move-in of the new facility by five to seven years. This would mean the police department will have moved headquarters twice within at least 15 years. Not all of the city commissioners agree though on having a new headquarters. While Arelette Preston did vote yes on the master plan from Fargo Police, she has reservations on a new HQ being built.

“I’m assuming that with further analysis the dollar figure will come back and it will not be feasible. Having set that aside, the things that stood out the most to me were the substations. That’s a good idea.” 

Preston does agree with the idea of having new and upgraded substations for the department. Commissioner Dave Piepkorn voted no to the police department’s master plan.