Tag Archives: crime in Watford City North Dakota

Police In Watford City, North Dakota

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Recently, I caught two adults on our construction site after it was closed and locked for the day.  Each of the gates were locked, and there are signs posted that read “No Trespassing, violators will be prosecuted “.  So there was no reason for them to be on the site, and I believed that they had gotten into the building.  There was nothing in their vehicle, and nothing in their hands, so they hadn’t stolen anything yet.  I yelled at them to get off the site and I said that I was calling the police.  I got their vehicle license plate number.

I dialed 911 because I wanted the police to stop these people to get their IDs, and to question them about what they were doing.  The police dispatcher at first was saying that there was nothing that could be done if they had already left the site.  I started to explain about the “No Trespassing” signs being posted, the site having a fence around it, the gates being locked, then the police dispatcher agreed to have an officer respond.  I gave the vehicle description and the license plate number.

As the minutes passed, I became more and more discouraged that the police were not taking this seriously.  After about six minutes had passed, I thought there was no longer any chance that they were going to spot that vehicle, it was long gone by now.  The police officer arrived after about eight minutes.

I explained to the police officer what had happened.  I showed the police officer where the car had been parked, and showed him that it was real close to the “No Trespassing” signs.  I explained that in the recent past there had been some tools that went missing and some vandalism.  The police officer took it seriously, and was able to identify the driver from the license plate number.

I sent a text message to construction company supervisor describing what happened, with Watford City PD case number.  I was hoping that construction company would not take the attitude with me, “To quit being an asshole and causing problems.”  Supervisor responded wanting to know who they were.  I responded with officer name and number, you will have to ask him.

The following day, site owner wanted to press criminal charges.  Site owner was taking incident more seriously than me.  Others explained to me, the likelihood of these two people planning to strip the building of copper electrical wire and copper plumbing, which I had not yet thought of myself.

Overall, the Watford City Police did a good job, they took this seriously, they found out who it was.

Also, watch out, the Watford City Police will get you for speeding and for DUI, they try hard on this too.

Update & Current Information:. In the four months since I wrote this blog post, I have had to call the Watford City Police back out to our construction site several more times.  The Watford Police response time has been pretty quick, and they have taken the incidents seriously.  Most of the time, we have seen and stopped people who don’t belong on our construction site before they have been able to take anything.  Most of the time, the calls to the Watford Police are just to give a description of the individuals and their vehicles to the police so that they can be on the look out for them at the other construction sites in town.

Do Not Speed In Watford City, North Dakota

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Do not speed in Watford City, North Dakota. The police here are very aggressive in stopping speeders in Watford City, they don’t give any leeway or benefit of the doubt, and there are many roads where the speed limit is not clearly posted. Every day that I drive into Watford City, I see that the police have someone pulled over and are writing them a ticket.

Part of what the police are doing, is trying to pay for themselves, they are trying to bring in enough revenue so that they can all keep their jobs. That is why they are so aggressive, and there is no slack given, they have to bring in enough money to pay for themselves. All over North Dakota now, there are local and state budget shortfalls.

The other thing that the police are doing, they are trying to check you out, in ways that you didn’t realize. You probably already know that they are going to check your vehicle license plate number to see if it belongs to the vehicle, or if the vehicle is stolen. They are going to check your driver’s license to see if you have any outstanding warrants, but they can also see what prior arrests you may have. Then the police are going to ask you for your current local address, that, they didn’t have. They want to know where all of these out of state workers are living locally, in case you steal something, or get into a bar fight.

In addition to observing for the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, open containers of alcohol, they are also looking for illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, weapons, stolen property, anything that could lead to an arrest. If the police request permission to search your vehicle, you are better off saying “No”, even if you are sure that you have nothing illegal. I will tell you why.

I bought a truck from a friend of mine, because he bought a diesel truck and needed to get rid of this one. When I bought this truck, it was all clean inside, but I still found some receipts and an old registration behind the back seat. Also, there was a red pill on the floor in a crevice that was hard to reach. That red pill stayed there for about two years, until I went to work in an oil field in Texas, and saw that the police were stopping people for speeding, then taking everything out of their vehicle to search it. I could not have explained what that pill was, I don’t know if it was a hydrocodone. If it was hydrocodone, which I do not have a prescription for, in Texas, I probably would have been found guilty of possession of narcotics, and been sentenced to several years in prison. In Texas, yes, several years.

In Texas, my Idaho concealed weapons permit was valid, I checked before I left. In Idaho, a concealed weapons permit covers both firearms and knives. In Texas, I later found out, it only covers firearms. In Texas, if anyone has a knife with a blade longer than seven inches “on or about their person”, they are “guilty of possession of an illegal knife”, and in your vehicle had already been decided in court to be “on or about your person”. I would not have gotten arrested for the loaded handgun in my vehicle, but I would have gotten arrested for the fixed blade hunting knife that I bought at WalMart. I didn’t know.

Update & Current Information:  In September of 2016, Highway 23 Business on the east side of Watford City was mostly completed, with permanent clear speed limit signs installed.  The police enforcement of the speed limit on the east end of Highway 23 Business is now fair, and it is a good road.

There are still many poor white out of state workers in Watford City.  The only way that Watford City is livable, with a low assault rate, low amount of theft and burglary, low meth addiction and meth trafficking, is through constant aggressive law enforcement by the Watford Police and McKenzie Sheriff.  I don’t like being followed by the Watford Police every time I go some place, and them wanting to pull me over for something, but it kind of has to be this way as long as there are so many White Trash in western North Dakota.