Bismarck’s police chief is retiring at the end of the month.
Dave Draovitch has been with the department since 1989. He began as a patrol officer, and moved up the chain of command, finally being appointed Chief in 2018.
Draovitch said he has seen a lot of changes since he began – especially in technology. He said having officer body-cams is expensive, but they protect both the officers and the public. Draovitch said the Department also uses drones – and soon could be using artificial intelligence, that will help officers write their reports.
"I'd have killed for that when I was starting out," Draovitch said with a chuckle. "I've seen what it can do."
Draovitch said people may think it's just a computer writing the report. But he said that's not how it's going to be.
"It transcribes what it hears," Draovitch said. "Pretty soon, it's going to have an update, where it will describe what the body camera sees. But the officers have to go into the draft report and make it their own. There's no way they can rely on what's written for them. But it does a great job in giving them a head start on things."
Draovitch also saids he feels fortunate that law enforcement has always been well supported in Bismarck.
"We know that the people of Bismarck want to have rule of law, and they want to be safe," Draovitch said.
Draovitch said the people help his department — a lot.
"They let us know what is going on, so we can go check on things," Draovitch said. "I've always appreciated that."
Two finalists have been named for the police chief’s position – Bismarck Deputy Chief Jason Stugelmeyer and UND Police lieutenant Daniel Weigel.
