Director of North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation speaks on agency's role, handling of officer-involved shootings, and more

(Bismarck, ND) -- North Dakota's BCI spoke with WDAY Radio to give more context into their everyday operations occurring across the state. 

Lonnie Grabowska is the Director of North Dakota's Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He says a majority of their operations are within what Grabowska calls "reactive assistance."

"Most of those include your felony level crimes, your violent offenses against persons, officer involved use-of-force, cyber-crime related specialty needs of an investigation also, such as human trafficking." said Grabowska, "BCI is authorized to be proactive in the enforcement of illegal narcotics activity." 

The director also spoke about when the BCI takes over an investigation, specifically around officer-involved shootings. Grabowska says they are often the most complicated and emotionally based cases they ever take on, largely because of not only a criminal investigation that is ongoing, but a separate investigation into the use of force.

"What makes these [cases] unique is that there is a parallel investigation that happens, that looks at if this is it a justifiable use-of-force, "said Grabowska, "You have both of [the investgations] going at the same time, but they must be separate. They cannot share information and they cannot touch information... We work very closely with the law enforcement agency and the local state's attorney's office, but we very much work independently of them, because we are supposed to be that."

Grabowska also spoke on their role regarding proactive assistance. The director says the agency plays a direct role in using "informants, undercover actions, surveillance, and intelligence" to gather evidence against drug traffickers. 

"It is definitely different, in that we do much of the work on the front end, and then charge it, "said Grabowska, "On the criminal side, a lot of times, something has already occurred, so we have to do all the investigation after the event has taken place, and then we have to build the case."

Grabowska ended the interview thanking agencies across the state for their cooperation. He says, without their assistance, ND BCI would be heavily limited in their capabilities. You can learn more about ND BCI by clicking here.