ND senators ask FBI for help with crime

North Dakota Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D) and John Hoeven (R) asked the FBI to send more agents to their home state because of increases in crime.

A steep increase in oil and natural gas production in western North Dakota has meant in sharp increase in population and crime.

{mosads}“We write regarding the need for increased federal law enforcement resources in western North Dakota,” Heitkamp and Hoeven wrote in a letter Thursday to FBI Director James Comey and drug czar Gil Kerlikowske. “As you are well aware, any population increase of this magnitude will unfortunately also draw a criminal element.”

The senators wrote to the administration asking them to reassign agents who are located at a temporary space in Sydney, Mont. Because of a lack of space in Williston, N.D., the agents have been in Montana, but the lawmakers say a permanent space has now been secured for them in the state.

“Williston sits in the heart of the oil patch and provides your agents the most optimal operating location to both carry out their duties and to assist state, tribal, county, and local law enforcement agencies in western North Dakota as needed,” Heitkamp and Hoeven wrote. “Our federal law enforcement resources in North Dakota are already stretched thin.”