Chief Helmick presents a bike helmet to a young rider at Safe City Nights at Robert Asp School.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

When Fargo police captain Chris Helmick stepped into his new role as Moorhead’s chief of police, he confesses he had some surprises in store.
“My perception of the Moorhead department before I came over here? Perhaps a little rough around the edges,” the new chief admits. “When someone suggested I apply, I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ but then, after I read through the full description of the position, I told my wife Stephanie, ‘I do think I’ll give this a shot.’”
Today, as Helmick approaches his 100th day at the MPD’s helm, he’s enthusiastic about the crew of sworn officers and civilian staffers whom he commands. “When I came in and started meeting with the officers, I was impressed. We have a group of young, enthusiastic officers doing some great things.
“This is a really underrated department,” he emphasizes. “Our community wants to support us, but they don’t really know everything we do.” The bottom line, as he starts his new assignment? “We have to do a better job of telling our story … of letting them know what this department is really about.”
Helmick himself came into law enforcement only after trying out a number of directions. A native of Harwood, North Dakota, and 1990 graduate of West Fargo High School, he spent his freshman year at North Dakota State University as a political science major. When he switched to Moorhead State University (MSUM) a year later, he enrolled in business management. (“After I flunked accounting, I decided that wasn’t it,” he confides.)
That was followed by anthropology. “As I started my junior year, I realized I didn’t know whether being an archaeologist was a good career choice,” he says, smiling. “I’d always been interested in the work of police officers, so I decided that was the direction in which I should go. I buckled down and graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.”
But his path continued to waver. He went back and forth for the next six years – a retail job at Best Buy, one summer working construction with his father, a stint as a bouncer at the Old Broadway, and assignments in sales, management and loss prevention at Sears. By the end of 2001, he landed in the field that would shape his future. He became a fledgling patrol officer for the Fargo Police Department.
He would spend the next eight years as a patrol officer, moving up to sergeant in 2009 and lieutenant in 2016. “I stayed in the patrol division,” he says. “I liked being on the street and going to daily calls. Every day was challenging. As I gained experience, I enjoyed helping lead younger officers. It was just a lot of fun.”
Helmick spent most of those years on the evening shift. With wife Stephanie working days as a registered nurse, he says, “We saved on day care.” In addition to his adult stepdaughter, the couple have a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old twins.
With Fargo’s change in leadership, he eventually left patrol behind. “Chief (David) Todd asked me if I was interested in the investigative team,” Helmick explains. “I told him I wasn’t interested. Then he told me, ‘Well, I’m putting you there anyway.’
“I had the narrow viewpoint of a patrol officer. I didn’t know how investigations worked,” he reports. “It was a much smaller team with a lot of challenges, including COVID. We worked well together and had a lot of success. I learned a lot. We rebuilt morale. I made new connections and found new resources.”
After the arrival of Chief David Zibolski in 2020, he was tapped to fill a vacancy at the command level. He became interim captain of the investigative division and, the next year, division head of that unit. But in 2021, he was promoted to captain and moved back to the patrol division as its commander. “It was,” he says, “like coming home.” He spent the next three years there, overseeing 120 officers and leading community engagement, airport security, the K-9 unit and SWAT.
Finally, in 2024, he led the professional standards division, heading the training unit, Internal Affairs and the records division. He applied for the Moorhead position after the departure of its three top leaders, including the retirements of Chief Shannon Monroe and Deputy Chief Tory Jacobson and the resignation of Capt. Deric Swenson.
He has confidence in the men and women, both sworn officers and civilians, whom he now leads. The future, he believes, holds the opportunity to both strengthen the department and its already-strong connection with the community it serves.
“For the last five years, the recruiting environment has been the polar opposite of what it was when I joined law enforcement,” he muses. “From Ferguson (the Missouri city where black teen Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in 2014) to George Floyd (killed by an officer in Minneapolis in 2020), law enforcement drew a lot of scrutiny. Experienced officers were leaving, and young people were avoiding the career.
“I think a rebuilding is in process. In the last year or so, I have the sense we’ve turned the corner. It’s still a challenge, but it’s getting a little easier.” The MPD has several officers in stages of training to assume some of the 14 openings on its staff of 56 sworn officers.
Helmick believes that regard for law enforcement continues to be healthier in this part of the nation. “Our community has pretty high respect for public safety officials,” he points out. “We haven’t had the same troubles that we’ve seen in the rest of the country. That gives us a little easier time … but it’s still challenging.”
Working together with members of the community is a key, he emphasizes, to keeping that relationship strong. Citing May’s peaceful protest on Veterans Memorial Bridge and in Woodlawn Park and other, smaller events, he stresses working with organizers to maintain a safe environment for everyone.
“We want people – kids – to be comfortable interacting with us. We’re not wearing uniforms to look scary. Hey, this is just what the majority of officers wear. You don’t need to be scared of us.
He speaks of stereotypes from the other side – officers who’ve been taught to be careful, to regard everyone else as being out to get them. “As we move up in experience, officers have to respond in a different way. On the one hand, even at a traffic stop, we have no idea who’s in that car and how they feel about us.
“But the great majority of people in our community are fine. We need to teach younger officers to walk that line … to always be prepared, yet approachable.
“We do need to do a better job of telling our story. The public hears every violent and frightening story in the news, but seldom hears from us on anything more than missing persons and adoptable dogs. We need to share more of the positive moments – how the Moorhead police force is working every single day to keep our city safe.”