Reports of violent crime in Fargo increase by 15 percent in 2021

(Fargo, ND) -- Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn is complaining about police officers not arresting a man who he says vandalized some cars outside of a pawn shop.

"If we have crimes that the police are now declining to bring the criminals to jail, those don't show up on our statistics so it actually looks like our crime is going down but actually it's just we are no longer deciding to pursue those," said Piepkorn. 

Piepkorn brought up the case during the Fargo City Commission's meeting Monday night when Police Chief Dave Zibolski reviewed preliminary crime statistics for 2021.  Violent crime reports in the city increased by about 15 percent in 2020. That year there were 534 reports of violent crime. The total increased to 635 in 2021. Chief Zibolsky responded to the case brought up by Commissioner Piepkorn. Zibolsky said an arrest did not happen because of a state law pertaining to damages under a certain dollar amount. The Chief said the case will be turned over to the state attorney's office for possible charges.