Minot Organized Crime Case Study

With population growth come inevitable problems. Western North Dakota, especially Minot, has been experiencing major growing pains since 2009 when the state struck liquid gold: oil. Minot is no longer the quiet, comfortable community it once was rather it has transformed into a hybrid of small town values and big city problems. Awakened by severe issues like skyrocketing drug use, unprecedented crime rates, and blatant prostitution, the police cannot handle the issues alone, and communities are unable to act quickly enough to combat the issues that do not directly affect them. New legislation must be enacted to stop the booming business of crime.

Undoubtedly, the rapid acceleration of crime including drug trafficking and violent crimes is

In an interview with CNN, Detective Lieutenant Mark Hanson spoke about the police shortage,“‘It’s a rat race every day, and the rats sometimes win. We're almost to the point of being overwhelmed, and a lot of times we are’”(qtd. in Ellis). In Watford city there were only 25 911 calls to the police in 2008, and in 2011 that number jumped to an astonishingly high 3,938 (policing the patch). While the police all over the state scramble to battle this problem the crime rate just keeps going up. In the 2012 North Dakota Crime Report, violent crime rates are at an all time high and up 2,500 since 2010 (source). While these numbers may still be relatively small compared to other U.S. cities, North Dakota is not used to these issues. Not only has the crime rapidly increased but so has the drug trade. Drugs are a constant battle around the country and the new reality in North Dakota. In an interview with NPR, Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press discussed the use of major drugs in North Dakota, “But now you see a different kind of meth. Most of it is coming from Mexico, often through the West Coast - maybe

Although historically Minot has not had to deal with these problems, it is now seeing massive increases in advertisement of sex for money and human trafficking cases. “By 2 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, Backpage.com in Minot listed 64 escort ads posted that day” stated an August 2014 article in the Minneapolis based Star Tribune. Shockingly this number was only a dozen shy of the total ads posted in Minneapolis/St. Paul area (Louwagie). This has become a huge problem in other, more rural areas with little action being taken to prevent it. Ads soliciting sexual services are being posted online by girls from their teens to their early twenties. Even more devastating is the fact that many girls with ads are as young as 14 and are coerced into this life by pimps. Windie Lazenko, an aid worker in Williston, was only 13 years old when when she was sold into prostitution (Boyce and This is Life: Filthy Rich). Lazenko, now 30, moved to Williston short-term to help work with the growing issue of sex crimes but has ended up staying and working for a cause that hits so close to home. She somberly stated in an interview with CNN, “In the whole entire state of North Dakota, I am the only one, so far, that is providing direct services to victims of sex trafficking” (qtd. in This is Life: Filthy Rich). Prostitution is not going away; moreover, it is alarming to know that it is happening right