Concerns for New Minot Police Chief | Video

Rich Wisniewski | 4/17/2012

With more cars making their way up and down the Minot roads, it’s clear the population is growing. More people means more chances for crime and new Minot Police Chief Jason Olson says there are not enough officers to handle it.

"Right now we`re not as competitive pay-wise as we need to be. And when you combine that with high housing cost, it makes it very difficult for a young officer starting out," Olson said.

A key issue Olson plans to address is officer retention. The fact remains, many Minot police officers have decided to leave for higher paying jobs.

"I want this to be the stopping point in someone`s career in law enforcement."

Currently, the Minot PD is experiencing a major turnover rate. Olson says the city allowed the PD to hire more officers, but they still have seven open positions because officers keep leaving.

"We`ve had a high turnover rate that last year. We hired 20 officers, but those 20 officers were all a part of the turnover."

It’s a major turnaround from two decades ago when Olson started. He said when he got hired in 1988, the PD had a zero turnover rate for four years.

"We almost had less officers on the street now then we had 24 years ago and the city has gone up dramatically in population."

Keeping officers is not going to be easy, but Olson says he`s ready to lead them and make sure his officers are treated right. As for the pay scale, currently the City of Minot is conducting a pay study to see how salaries compare to other cities of similar size.

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