MOORHEAD (KFGO) – Change is coming to the Moorhead Police Department.
Longtime Chief Shannon Monroe is retiring after 30 years. Monroe began his law enforcement career as a deputy with the Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Office.
Monroe, 55, says he’s always tried to be honest with the public and take whatever action was needed to make adjustments when mistakes were made.
“You see some places that are very dysfunctional that allow it to go on and they don’t correct it. Those are the bad places,” Monroe says. “Being human happens, people make mistakes, and there’s a couple ways to look at it. There’s intentional mistakes that are made – that’s more egregious than somebody who just errored; they did something wrong, their judgement was wrong. That’s correctable. That’s fixable. Things that are intentional need to be removed from law enforcement.”
Monroe says the case of NDSU student Tom Bearson still haunts him.
The freshman from Sartell, Minnesota was last seen at a house party near the campus in September 2014. His body was found in the parking lot of a recreational vehicle dealership in Moorhead.
With advances in DNA technology and investigative techniques, Monroe says he remains hopeful that the case will be solved. It is a top priority for the department.
“The pieces of that case that just haven’t been put together to get this thing to the finish line… you don’t want to go off into retirement thinking that will never get solved. I think it will,” Monroe says. “Technology changes… sometimes people, as they get older there’s things they can’t live with anymore and they start talking. I’m still very hopeful that one gets solved. Not only for justice for Tom Bearson, but for his family.”
The Fargo Police Department, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and FBI continue to work the Bearson case. Bearson’s family receives updates on the status of the investigation on a regular basis.
Monroe says despite high-profile violent crimes in recent years, he believes Fargo-Moorhead remains extremely safe.
“We’re seeing things more often than what we used to 30 years ago, obviously,” Monroe says. “I still don’t think there’s anywhere you wouldn’t walk any time of day in the City of Moorhead. It’s a safe community. Our whole metro area is a safe community, especially when you compare this to similar-sized communities. The crime rate is pretty low here.”
Monroe is retiring at the end of March. Prior to that, Deputy Chief Tory Jacobson is retiring.
A search to replace Monroe is underway and he plans to stay-on during the transition.
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