Minot State and Minot PD join forces to bolster public safety

The Minot Police Department faces the same dual threat as many of its peers elsewhere — not only high crime rates but a shortage of officers to combat it. The blunt reality was summarized all too clearly by the Minot Daily News.

Interim Minot Police Chief Dale Plessas told the Minot City Council his department is down 15 officers and with more departures on the horizon, it could be down 18 officers soon.

“That’s approximately a full PD shift,” he said. “There’s no way that you can be down that many officers and not have the engines running hot. And right now our engine is running hot. Our officers are going from call to call. They’re not being as proactive as they could be, and they’re asked to take on a lot more. And so the point is, we have to come up with an ambitious plan to cool the engine, but at the same time, a pipeline of officers in the future of the police department…”

The proposed pipeline turns out to be the campus of Minot State University. The task of filling the ranks has become so challenging the Minot PD has turned to college students to bolster its numbers by enabling them to learn and earn wages on the job.

Gary Rabe, professor in criminal justice, said the proposed program gives students real workforce and applied learning experiences and a direct pipeline into a career path, along with having many of their educational and housing costs paid while also earning a wage. Once they graduate from MSU, they would commit to work three years with the Minot Police Department or be subject to repaying their educational assistance.

The participating students would become part-time Community Service Officers tasked with investigating accidents, vandalism, and routine duties that allow police officers to concentrate on other responsibilities.

Students must be in their junior and senior years at MSU to participate or in a two year program. Rabe said Minot received Board of Higher Education approval less than a month ago to offer an associate’s degree in policing.

City Manager Harold Stewart said the proposal is to use the salary savings from vacant officer positions to invest into a program that can help refill those positions. At a cost of $45,000 to $51,000 per student, bringing in four students as CSOs would cost about $200,000, but the state potentially could pick up 50% of the cost, he said. The first participating students could enroll this fall.

Final details remain to be worked out before the Minot City Council has the opportunity to approve the program. But Minot may be close to solving a mystery that perplexes many in law enforcement these days, namely finding and retaining enough police officers to serve on the force.

“The idea of grabbing on to potential recruits early in the process is great,” council member Mike Blessum said. “We’ve got to work through the details and how we go about that. But I think the concept is right.”