Bismarck Police Department Responds to Growth | Video

Retha Colclasure | 10/16/2012

The new streets, houses, businesses, and people in Bismarck mean more work for the police department. Bismarck PD knows they can`t keep doing the same old things and keep crime under control in a growing city. So they`ve been making a few changes during the past year.

Patrolman Trevor Schmidt has lived in Bismarck for most of his life. But even so, there`s parts of the city he`s never been to and parts of the city that didn`t exist just a few months ago.

"When you`re new, you take time to drive around, learn the areas," he said.

He takes time to learn areas on his beat, as well as figure out where other officers are being called to.

"If you hear somebody get dispatched to an area you`ve never been, punch it in, see where they`re at to put it in your memory bank."

Starting next year, there will be a few more officers in Trevor`s shoes. The police department will be adding six more patrol officers, increasing the staff from 103 to 109.

"Police presence does tend to reduce crime," said Deputy Chief Randy Ziegler.

They also added another beat in the north side of the city so that an officer will already be in that area to respond to calls.

"Response time is getting to be an issue," Ziegler said.

They`re still able to respond to most calls within a minute or a minute and a half. One thing that can slow them down is traffic.

"Traffic is getting to be a major issue, especially on State Street. It`s safe to say we have a rush hour in Bismarck now," Ziegler said.

He says they`re working on different patrol techniques to deal with responding to calls, all while continuing to look down the road at what they`ll need in the future.

Once the new officers are hired, it can take anywhere from five to nine months before they`re patrolling the streets on their own.

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