Fargo Police Announce Annual Crime and Traffic Report

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Since November of this year, there have been over 89,000 calls for service in the city of Fargo, ranging from disturbances to traffic stops, suspicious individuals, public assistance, and medical assistance.

“We’ve got homeless issues, we’ve got mental health issues, we have addiction issues, we have jail issues. We’re in a situation where, many instances, we can’t get many people into jail,” said Chief Dave Zibolski,  Fargo Police.

Both Cass County and City of Fargo jails have been full since April.
Police have had to book close to 320 people with many of them released back into the public.

“It doesn’t take long for people to understand that there’s little to no consequences for so many activity and that would be my biggest concern. Because, while we have a very safe city, if the belief out there is I can do pretty much whatever I want and I don’t ever have to show up for court or serve my sentence, you’re going to start to see a much larger problem,” said Zibolski.

With the City of Fargo’s population continuously growing, the urgency for calls of safety continues to grow. Which includes the safety in the downtown area.

“There’s crime and there’s fear of crime and fear of crime often has a greater effect on people’s psyche so we totally understand that. But we also think it’s important to put the facts out there, identify the problem is and now let’s work on the solution which is something the city’s engaged in,” said Zibolski.

This past year, the newly started traffic safety team has been bringing numbers up on addressing traffic violations. While the team is working to build on keeping the streets safe, their small team is not enough.

“We just need more people as fast as our city’s growing, so six is definitely not enough. But we’ve definitely had an impact which is why we be trying to be strategic on where we place them, where we allocate them. But ideally we’d like to have them out there 24 hours a day as well,” said Captain Matt Christensen, Fargo Police.

Zibolski hopes to add more officers to the department which he will address in the next legislative session.