Fargo police chief reacts to his improvement plan, allegations of low workplace morale – InForum

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FARGO — After a 4-1 city commission vote on Monday, Jan. 24, Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski will soon be under an improvement contract. This is happening in light of staffing issues and low morale described in recent exit interviews.

If he does not meet the requirements laid out by a certain deadline in the improvement contract, he will be removed. WDAY News sat down with him to hear what he thinks about the plan, and how he wants to move forward.

Just a few days after the negative exit interviews went public, Commissioner Dave Piepkorn loudly called for Zibolski to be fired.

“I guess the fact that there really wasn’t a sit-down discussion about that was, maybe, the most shocking, but I guess that’s a relationship I’ll have to work on reestablishing,” Zibolski said.

During our interview, Zibolski wasted little time before bringing up the five new officers sworn in on Monday, and the new recruits being trained in. He said there are 20 vacancies in his department.

“We got to continue to build a team and continue with recruitment and retention efforts,” he said.

We asked Zibolski if he thinks accountability-based changes like body cameras and the oversight committee are leading to the negative exit interviews. He answered, saying staffing and mental health issues in his department existed before he started.

Zibolski focused on two negative exit interviews which he said were the only ones with a lot of detail.

“One person in particular, (had) a long history of difficulties,” Zibolski explained. “Things that they’ve been challenged with that preceded my start at the department for a significant amount of time. To attribute the sole cause as myself when these issues preceded me, I think, people can make up their own minds about that.”

Zibolski wants to improve his own communication and outreach, but did not appear to take responsibility for anything else.

“Well I think there’s always self reflection, there’s always room for improvement,” Zibolski answered. “We’ve worked hard to try and create an environment where people are comfortable coming forward with issues. We established a shift representative committee just for that purpose.”

I asked Zibolski if he thinks he can accomplish the tasks in the improvement contract. He told me since its deadline has yet to be established, he cannot answer that question yet.

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