Western N.D. oil boom leads to 'unprecedented' demand for law enforcement officers

North Dakota's economy continues to churn, but energy isn't the state's only boom industry.

While law enforcement isn't exactly an industry, it's a market that is flourishing as well.

When 19 students graduate from the Lake Region State College Peace Training Academy in Devils Lake today, it will mark 92 total students who have graduated from the program this year -- a record number for the academy, which is the only one of its kind in North Dakota.

Last year's total of 83 graduates was the previous record.

The Highway Patrol also operates an academy in Bismarck, which is aimed at people already working in law enforcement that don't have that training.

"There's a huge demand for officers," said Lloyd Halvorson, director of the LRSC program for the past 10 years. "If you go back to about 2000, we needed about 100 to 110 cops a year. Now between our program and the Highway Patrol, we're training about 180 a year and there's no shortage of job openings throughout the state."

Since 1987, the college has graduated more than 1,200 students from the program. Students are instructed by 40 professionals from agencies across the state, and graduates have been hired by 16 different law enforcement agencies.

Growing demand

There are several factors that have led to the increase in the need for peace officers in the state, including retirements and increased activity in population centers. But like many job markets, law enforcement has mirrored the growth in oil activity in western North Dakota.

"The growth out west is unprecedented," Halvorson said. "Some of the agencies out west are doubling or tripling in size in the last three years."

While there have been increased opportunities with economic growth, Halvorson believes there is another key reason.

"The No. 1 reason over the past decade is that people are not staying in law enforcement as long as they once did," he said. "It used to be, officers would stay in an agency for 20 years. Now people are staying in law enforcement for five or six years and trying something else."

While the western part of the state has seen the greatest need for officers, eastern North Dakota also has maintained its levels.

"We have no problems filling our programs in the eastern part of the state," Halvorson said.

'Where the work is'

The Lake Region academy holds two semester-long programs each year and also has outposts in Grand Forks and Fargo. Since 2002, the college has had a summer academy in Fargo in cooperation with the Fargo Police Department and the Cass County Sheriff's Department.

The Grand Forks summer session, in association with the Grand Forks Police Department, has been open since 2010. The school is now adding an academy in Minot, set to start on Jan. 17.

"We're going to suspend one in Devils Lake and hold one in Minot to meet the demand for officers in the western part of the state," Halvorson said.

The program will be built into the criminal justice degree at Minot State University and can be part of a bachelor's degree.

Halvorson said Mountrail County in the northwest, and Golden Valley and Dunn counties in the western part of the state, have had the biggest increases in demand. If graduates are able to move to those areas, jobs are available.

"There are a lot of factors that go into who gets hired and who doesn't, but the biggest thing is whether the graduate is willing to move where the work is," he said. "We have essentially a 100 percent employment rate. There are more opportunities than I have graduates to fill them."

Reach Bieri at (701) 780-1118; (800) 477-6572, ext. 118; or send email to cbieri@gfherald.com .