The new Chief of Fargo Police, Travis Stefonowicz, was unanimously approved by the Fargo City Commission on Monday.
Stefonowicz previously served as Assistant Chief and then Interim Chief, and came highly recommended by city staff.
A member of the department since 2002, Stefonowicz has worked under four previous chiefs.
"I've been able to watch each of them as leaders, and learn from them - both coming from the outside, and coming up within the system, taking all those lessons that I've learned, applying them to my character, and my philosophy... and now I get an opportunity to implement some of those things. So it's pretty exciting."
Stefonowicz says he’s honored to have been chosen as chief, and he says serving in this role is an opportunity – to continue to build on the department’s mission, as well as grow and improve. He says he looks forward to working with media partners and the community to foster more open communication.
He also says he takes his new role very seriously.
"I certainly have a lot of sleepless nights as I think about many of the things... from basic things like staffing, how do we do more with less. How do we do more with less as it relates to budgeting, there's a lot of things as it relates to that. And then you go out to the community, and you've got a large group of people that really supports what we do, and then you've got another group of people that's always frustrated, and it almost seems we can do no right in their eyes. Just really focusing on those positive things, and trying to do what we can about those things brought to our attention where maybe, we're falling short."
Stefonowicz says the biggest challenge facing the department is staffing – which translates to not only meeting needs within the community, but the needs of all the department’s employees.
