00:00:11,039	S1:
Welcome to Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz, a transparent and engaging conversational dive into meaningful topics impacting local government in Bismarck, North Dakota. Bismarck Insights is dedicated to removing barriers between the city of Bismarck and the citizens we serve every day.

00:00:32,200	S2:
Welcome to Bismarck Insights. I'm Mayor Mike Schmitz, and today we're going to focus on CenCom. And we have Tom Tkach with us today. And this is a little different because we're diving into some people who are actually kind of more hands on in the operations. So, Tom, would you just introduce yourself to the audience and let us get to know you a little bit? You know how you got here, what your background is and and what caused you to join CenCom?

00:00:58,359	S3:
Okay. Well, first, Your Honor, thanks for the opportunity to come and share some insights into CenCom and our role in the safety and security of the of our communities. Um, I've been in public safety my entire life. I actually after high school here, I ended up in Grand Forks in the paramedic program, and after getting my degree there, I ended up working for the city of Denver, uh, for over 20 years. And with the paramedic division, one of the promotional requirements there was to spend a month in dispatch. And so people that showed a talent for being a dispatcher were actually invited in on a regular basis. So for many years, my shifts were three days on the street, one day in dispatch. So, um, after I retired from the city of Denver, I moved back to Bismarck. And, um, with my dispatch experience, I saw there was an opening for CenCom, so that seemed like a good fit. So fortunately I was able to get go through the process and was appointed. So I've been with the city for over 17 years now, 12 years as a operations supervisor. So one of my roles is I continue to rotate through the through the council assignments. So as a working supervisor, I'm still doing the job every day. So awesome.

00:02:18,409	S2:
Well, let's let's try to give people an understanding of what what really goes on at Sandia. We call it CenCom, but it's central communications. And what are the what who are the emergency responding groups that we help provide dispatch to.

00:02:31,930	S3:
So Central Dakota Communications Center, or CenCom, is what's known as a SAP public safety answering point. So we receive all the 911 calls from the entire county and from Bismarck and Mandan. We're the second busiest peace app in the state, right after Fargo, with the volume of calls that we get. So we dispatch five law enforcement agencies, seven fire departments and five ambulance services. So we take all of the emergency calls. We take all of the non-emergency calls for that area or for our area. Um, so we have all of our assignments. We have five council assignments in the dispatch center. So the first one is going to be the Bismarck police. And they share a common talk group with the Bismarck State College police. We have Burleigh County sheriff. It's the next console assignment, and we dispatch the deputies as well as the City of Lincoln police. We have a Mandan police console. We do all of their dispatching. Then we have two consoles that are specifically call taking. One of them is the 901 dispatcher who takes all the 911 calls. Then we have a non-emergency call taker who handles all the other phone calls. Now, when there's room gets busy, everybody kind of jumps in and helps everybody else out. So, um.

00:03:46,740	S2:
So how many how many dispatchers or call takers are on staff at any one time?

00:03:52,740	S3:
Full staffing would be five positions. Um, the middle of the night, it drops down, sometimes to four positions, so that we've got a call taker, a 911 dispatcher. They share those duties because obviously the call volume is much slower than that in the middle of the night. So typically five consoles are going, we have got 12 consoles in the radio room, so we can have consoles being used by recruits who are training with the training officer. So generally the room can be pretty full sometimes. So um, all of the dispatchers are cross-trained so that um, we rotate through an assignment. So in any average work week you would do Bismarck, then Burleigh, then Mandan and nine over 11 and call taking. So essentially everybody knows how to do everybody else's job. And that keeps everybody proficient and what they need to do. Um, the busiest one is really the Bismarck police, um, console because obviously the call volume population is greater. So that's the busiest console. Um, any position can get saturated with calls, um, you know, and get very busy in Mandan or Burleigh. So, um, everybody works together. Um, on a typical day, the call volume ebbs and flows. It can be real busy one minute and real quiet the next. Essentially, the types of calls that we receive can be anything from somebody who's dog is loose, running around, or it could be a heart attack or a bad car wreck or anything like that. So you just never know when the phone rings, what you're going to be dealing with. So, um, we have call processing protocols that we use so that when we interrogate a caller, we have a specific set of questions that we ask based on that nature of that type of event. So, um, so basically, um, when a typical call comes in, when we generate a call for service, the first thing we do is we identify the address, we can send help if we don't know where we're going to go. So we have several different ways of doing that. We have the phone GPS coordinates that comes through the phone system. Um, And that gives us a general proximity of where the call is coming from. We also have a new system called rapid SOS, which uses not just the GPS coordinates, but it uses Wi-Fi signals so that we can get a much more accurate location on that phone. So if somebody calls 911 and they're unable to speak. Uh, we should be able to find them with pretty quickly with that system. So once we know that where the address is, um, we will then figure out the phone number. We need to sometimes call people back, so we'll get, uh, we always ask the call back number. After that, it's the nature of the call. And using that nature of the call will interrogate them based on the standard questions for that. From there, we will, um, route the call to the appropriate dispatcher so that if it's a Bismarck call, it will automatically route to that screen, and he'll know he has a call to get out.

00:06:51,399	S2:
So that that initial call, there's a person's take. One person takes it before it gets moved to. Correct.

Okay. 00:06:58,050	S3:
Yeah, exactly. So once we, uh. Once we have actually identified where the call is the system. We have a database that queries response plans and run orders for the different agencies. For example, on a fire, if there's one fire going on in a city and there's another incident. The system automatically knows that because this station is empty now, it knows what's the next closest fire station, and we'll send them. Same with the ambulances. We can dispatch them by their locations. All of the vehicles have what's known as automatic vehicle locators, or AVL. So we can watch them on our map as they move around. We can also dispatch them based on that's the closest unit to this incident. So there's a lot of times we'll be um, we'll be swapping units because we got somebody closer.

00:07:45,810	S2:
So, you know, 25 years ago we probably didn't have that ability to know, you know what? What unit for what emergency situation was. Yeah. Closest. Yeah, exactly. So you get the call, go out and whoever can respond and thought they could get there fastest. Maybe.

Yeah. 00:08:00,569	S3:
Used to have a magnetic board of the city that had magnet cars on it. And you would kind of just move them around back in the day. So now everything's computerized. So. Excuse me. Um, one of the things that we do with medical calls is we have what's known as emergency medical dispatch protocol. So when we get a medical call, we'll interrogate that caller based on the chief complaint of the patient. And then when the system determines that we have enough information about the event, it'll tell us that it's. You're at a dispatch point, and we'll send fire, police, ambulance, whatever is required for that particular incident. So, um, we we also provide dispatch, life support, um, to callers on a medical incident. Um, in the program, it tells us, for example, how to coach somebody through doing CPR or stopping bleeding or even delivering a baby. So that's why a lot of times, the dispatchers will remain on a call for a lengthy period of time until responders get there. So we can continue to provide directions to the to the family or friends or whatever. Um, we also have a lot of, um, what's known as self-initiated calls. An example would be a police officer doing a traffic stop, and this would be a call that would be generated by them calling us on the radio, and we would put it into the system that way. Um, the one of the interfaces we use is criminal justice information systems, or C, just where we can run names and cars and license plates and driver's licenses, run it through the criminal justice database and find out if somebody's got warrants or if they're wanted, or if the driver's license is suspended or something like that. So that's one of the things that, um, the typical day is we got officers calling stops out and we've got callers calling in and we're putting the calls in that way. So, um.

00:09:50,100	S2:
So roughly in a eight hour shift for a dispatcher. Let's take the let's take there in the daytime. Because you're right, that's probably most of the calls. Although I would guess that that that daytime is always isn't always as busy as maybe the evening time or so on. But like a typical eight hour shift for a for a dispatcher, roughly how many calls are they dealing with on on?

00:10:14,419	S3:
Well, we're dealing with hundreds of calls. Typically some of them 911 calls, a lot of them non-emergency calls. Um, during our day, we actually looking at statistics. We know that our busiest time, um, overall is going to be between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. the call volume tends to skyrocket there. You know, schools letting out more traffic, people moving around. Um, so we tend to get a much higher volume there. That's one of the reasons that the police or the law enforcement agencies had a separate shift, the power shift to kind of cover that, um, peak volume. Um, same thing in dispatch. We'll have extra people on. Like, for example, my shift. I'm a power shift supervisor, so I come in at 3:00, so I'm there for the busiest part of the day. Um, so the typical day you can expect, we'll get a couple of hundred and nine, 11 calls. Um, not not all of those are emergencies, but, um, people tend to use nine and one for many different reasons and its intent. But, um, so it is pretty busy in the middle of the night. It kind of, you know, quiets down a little bit, but you can never depend. Um, you can typically depend on Friday and Saturday nights being much higher call volume, especially around bar rush time, that sort of thing.

00:11:31,029	S2:
So yeah. And callers that are your dispatchers receive these calls sometimes there's some pretty panicked situations. Yeah. And how do how do the dispatchers are you kind of I don't know, help that person see through that and get them calmed down if possible or, you know, hopefully. I mean, hopefully it's not life threatening for the caller.

00:11:55,919	S3:
You do deal with a lot of hysterical callers. And one of the training regimens we do is the telecommunications course that's done. And one of the one of the learning modules is dealing with hysterical callers. So one of the strategies is repetitive persistence, where we will continue to say the same thing over and over at the same tone, trying to break through that, that kind of wall of hysteria. So we'll be able to calm people down. One of the really useful things is giving people a directive, something to do once you've told them, you know, the old country doctor would tell the delivering a baby. He'd tell the husband to boil water and fold bandages. He didn't need boiling water. He needed the husband out of the way because he was hysterical. So it's kind of the same thing for us. We'll tell somebody, turn the lights off, gather up the medications. Simple things like that can give people a focus. Kind of calm them down. Sure.

So. 00:12:47,000	S2:
So question for you. What's been one of your most memorable calls? And you don't have to get any details, but like kind of the concept of a memorable call and how it maybe is stuck, why it stuck with you for.

00:13:02,840	S3:
Well, um, in my as a paramedic. Obviously I had lots of resuscitation that were successful and, and I kind of think about those, you know, giving people a fresh chance at life, those sort of things. Um, but I think one of my favorite calls, the most memorable, was delivering a healthy baby in the back of the ambulance. So that was kind of memorable. Um, uh, at CenCom, I've had lots of memorable calls where I've been able to provide dispatch life support to somebody while they're waiting for responders to arrive and be able to get them to open an airway or start CPR or breathe for somebody, control bleeding, keeping them alive until we can get there. Um, I've had some obviously some more horrible calls. I was the first on the scene of the Continental Airline crash at Stapleton Airport. We had quite a number of fatalities, but we did save a lot of lives as well. And then unfortunately, I also responded to Columbine High School during the shooting there. So those are calls that, you know, you try and keep out of your memory, but it still comes back to haunt you sometimes. Um, being in it as long as I have and at dispatch as well as you kind of learn some stress debriefing principles that really help you. Um, so I've been fortunate enough to, you know, continue.

00:14:24,129	S2:
So, so unfortunately, you had to experience some of those things firsthand. Being a first responder. But it probably does help you on the call side when the call comes in to help de-escalate a situation.

00:14:35,370	S3:
Maybe I find myself, just as I wouldn't say stressed out, but anxious, um, in dealing with stuff on the phone as I did in person. Um, it's even more frustrating as a dispatcher, knowing what the other side is like, knowing how much chaos is going on and and kind of being empathetic to that.

So. 00:14:59,259	S2:
So what do you find are some of the the qualifications and skills that you look for in a dispatcher, um, that you've learned from your 30 plus years, 40 plus years, probably, of being involved in this intense environment?

00:15:14,700	S3:
Well, um, for dispatching, one of the things that's very useful is to have good computer skills and typing skills, because everything we do is using that equipment. Um, we have a system known as CAD, which is computer aided dispatch, and that that overall system interfaces with all of the other computer programs, such as records management and the C just, uh, law enforcement stuff and, um, the computer aided dispatch that interfaces with the EMT program. So one keystroke and it brings up the medical protocol. You can go right into that. Um, and then the phone system dumps right into the CAD system, too. You just hit a button, and all of the phone information from a cell phone gets dumped right into your call, so you don't have to waste time typing everything in. Um, so it's a CAD system is a very powerful tool for us. So that's why good background and computer knowledge is useful. Um, beyond that, we look for people that are good with people, people skills. And believe it or not, we've had lots of successful dispatchers that came from businesses like McDonald's restaurant. Um, they're used to dealing with people and dealing with chaos, and they seem to be a good fit for dispatching. Um, we also look for people that might have call center experience. One of the things that we look for is people's ability to multitask. Um, the best example and dispatch I can give you is the 911 dispatcher. Not only are you talking on the phone to the caller, you're giving pre-arrival instructions. Then you're paging out the ambulance in the fire department, and on top of that, you could have a medical call going on in Burleigh County and Mandan and Bismarck and multiple fires going on. So it's a lot of balls in the air when you're doing that. So multitasking is important. And beyond that, just the ability to think under pressure. And we have some strategies for teaching people how to kind of keep things concise and have good situational awareness. So we don't really expect, um, our new recruits to have any of those skills. And it's pretty rare to actually hire somebody with dispatch experience. So we take it from scratch, and we teach people all the fundamentals and put them through that and give them plenty of opportunity to get to where they need to be.

Sure. 00:17:33,029	S2:
So so as you just describe what what you look for in skills or the type of person that indicates to me that this job, being a dispatcher does not come without stress and does not come out with an emotional stress itself, or even mental health related issues that can be driven from a post-traumatic stress disorder really is a real issue for dispatchers. So what do we do to try to help our team members with that, keeping them well mentally, physically? Especially after major, you know, some major event that happened in their shift.

00:18:12,000	S3:
Right. So we in the old days it was, you know, suck it up, you know, and you just avoided the subject completely. We've learned over the years that people end up with PTSD, and not just the people in the field that are dealing with it, but the dispatchers, you know, having to deal with the traumatic event like a CPR call or something like that, maybe involving a child. And those can be very stressful, and it affects the dispatchers as much as the field personnel. So as a supervisor, I'll try and recognize that in my people and try and give them a break and get them out of the room. And, you know, um, one of the things that we do at CenCom is we have what's known as the quiet Room, where we've got, you know, a beach scene painted on the walls and some chill music playing. And, and, uh, it's an opportunity to get out of the environment and just relax for a few minutes. You know, that's assuming that, you know, the call volume is low enough that you can spare somebody in the room. Sometimes it's you just get steamrolled and you can't. Um, so just being able to talk about things with dispatch, you know, with your fellow dispatchers. Hey, that was a bad one. You know how you do when you need a break, that sort of thing. Sometimes that just begins the process. Um, we, um, dispatchers, I think just like law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, they have to learn to compartmentalize, you know, leave the job and go home. Um, that's difficult. So there are some additional, um, Some additional resources. One of them is the Crisis Care Chaplaincy program. Can give them a call. They've come up to dispatch before and chatted with us and given us an opportunity to, you know, let get our feelings out. We also have the EAP program through the city that people can take the opportunity to use that as well.

Sure. 00:20:07,809	S2:
That's that's just good insight. I mean, as we obviously we all we're looking for dispatchers to. So I want people to understand that even though maybe a stressful job, we do have some tools available, some resources to, to help them with, with whatever comes from that day on the job. Yeah, there's probably every day there's something that, you know, I can't imagine their shift goes by where there isn't a high intense call for most people, much more dispatchers.

00:20:33,930	S3:
Right? Yeah. There are those those calls. They're also very many rewarding calls as well where you can actually help somebody. So I find that that's a good trade off. You know, I kind of like the chaos sometimes I've been in this so long, but, um, um, I also like the rewards you get from it too. Or, you know, people. Thank you for doing helping them out.

So. 00:20:53,500	S2:
So can you talk a little bit about your experience with the the partnerships? You've mentioned them early on. But, you know, Central Communications is is dealing with multiple agencies and and not all of them are controlled by the city directly.

00:21:08,220	S3:
Correct.

00:21:08,660	S2:
Or by Bismarck or or Mandan. So, I mean, we deal with the ambulance services, which is a private or private entity. Right? So what's our partnership like with them? And, and how does that how is the interaction between the various agencies and departments?

00:21:23,339	S3:
Well, we have we have an operational committee where we meet with the command staff from all of our all of our agencies. We do that once a month, where we deal with issues that come up and how we can help each other. So we do have that operations committee that, um, is a very good tool for making sure that everybody is working together and on the same page. Um, they understand that we're for the first first responders because we're the first people making contact with the people. Um, and we're gathering that information. Um, one of our real important, um, prime directives, I guess, is, is that everybody gets home alive. And that means not just the public, but all of our responders as well. And we take that job very seriously. That's the reason that when we interrogate callers, we're asking a lot of questions about, you know, is there drugs, is there alcohol, is there weapons? How many people on the scene, those kinds of things. Um, and, and make sure that we're passing that along and preparing our responders for what we're sending them into. Um, so, um, that's our prime directive. Everybody gets home alive. The system helps us in our situational awareness with, um, the database that's there, if we put an address in, the CAD system will tell us. So we've been there three times in the last three days, and we can pull those calls up and see. Very helpful. Yeah, it is so.

00:22:47,309	S2:
Not only to you, but for that responder.

00:22:49,109	S3:
Exactly. Yeah. So we have call histories that will look up. We have, um, watchdog timers on all of our units when they're on scene of a call. Uh, after a certain number of minutes, the system will warn us that, hey, we haven't heard from this unit. You need to call them. So we'll get on the air and do a status check. Um, the the other thing that warns us about is, uh, people that might be wanted. So there's flags that come up when there's a warrant at a location so we can warn the officers that they're going into. Um, when we are dealing with law enforcement calls, we do quite a bit of, um, interrogation based on the particular nature code. For example, the questions we ask for an auto accident are different than ones we would ask for a burglary or a burglary in progress. Um, the part of the interrogation is we provide what's known as caller and jeopardy directives. We have a long list of things we can tell people what to do to keep themselves safe until until help arrives. A good example would be, um, get a call from a lady who's hiding in her closet with her kids because somebody's broken into the house downstairs. So we'll provide specific directives to her on how to stay safe. Um, another one would be lady calling in saying, somebody is chasing me, I'm being stalked. And we can give her a particular directives on what to do to keep her safe until we can get help to her. So that's part of the process for interrogation, is providing those to keep our people safe until someone can help them. Um, a lot of times when we'll, we'll stay on the line with people on in-progress calls because scenes change and we want to update our officers. So I'll stay on the line with somebody on a call for a long time, sometimes until help gets there so I can update the responders. Somebody's broken in the house. Okay. They're in the downstairs basement. I Update the officers and take it from there. When we have fire calls, we want to send the right fire response. So somebody will call in and they say that yeah, my Co detector is going off and I have a headache you know. So we'll immediately give them evacuation instructions and get rescue going. Um when we get fire calls somebody calls in and says, yeah, there's a dumpster on fire. We'll ask questions like, well, is it next to the building? Because if it's next to the building, it could turn into a structure fire instantly. Right. So, um, that's one of the things that we do is we interrogate callers based on the particular nature, just like the police calls. As far as the medical calls go, um, the way we help them is we, again, will interrogate, um, EMT protocol, will ask the appropriate questions based on the nature code and or the type of incident, and then it will generate an appropriate response. That response might be an ambulance non-emergency. It might be an ambulance. Lights and siren might be fire. And ambulance? It might be fire. Police and ambulance. Depending on what the what the nature is. For example, you know, the police cars, all of them have an AED defibrillator. They all carry Narcan. They all have first aid kits. And so whenever we're dealing with an incident that, um, might require immediate intervention, we know there's a lot more officers out there driving around than there are fire trucks and ambulances. So boom, they're going to get sent.

00:26:11,250	S2:
So that shows the cooperation between all those agencies and departments. Absolutely. And you're the you're the hub.

00:26:16,970	S3:
Yeah, absolutely. So, um, that's basically what we do is we, we respond to whatever their requests are. So they'll be asking us to do things like a officer on a traffic stop or on a car wreck. Yeah, call me a tow, um, that sort of thing. So whatever requests they've got, we just provide what they need.

So. 00:26:36,609	S2:
So throughout the career of a dispatcher, the training that we're able to provide to them is that internal, external, do we have opportunities so that they can advance in their career?

00:26:47,369	S3:
Yeah. Um, so through our screening process, once people get through the background checks and everything, we'll get them into our classroom training. We have a new hire academy, our recruit academy. There's a number of weeks where it's basically a classroom where they have all kinds of learning modules. For example, they learn all about law enforcement operations, all about fire ops, all about EMS operations, and all of the other city departments. We play a role with public works as well. Um, so once they get through the classroom training, they go into the we have a training room where we have our offline CAD training equipment, and we'll have them learn the CAD system there, and then we'll do simulations where, um, we'll integrate the phone ops with the radio ops with the cat ops, and get everybody as well prepared for hitting the floor as a trainee. Or we can, once they finish the academy they get assigned to, we have a group of senior dispatchers who are known as CTOs or communication training officers. They're certified in that and they'll spend a month with the CTO. Um, during that month, they will have a daily observation report filled out where they evaluated in 30 categories. Um, and what we do is identify their strengths, their weaknesses and strategies to fix the weaknesses. Um, they will then rotate to another training officer for and back and forth, and then they'll end up with, um, total immersion in the system because they'll work nights, weekends, uh, holidays, and they'll rotate to days and nights. So they get to understand how everything works 24 over seven. Once they're completed, they're they'll will, uh, once they completed the CTO program, they're assigned to a permanent shift, and. Sure.

So. 00:28:37,220	S2:
Okay.

00:28:38,109	S3:
Um, the certifications that they maintain after we do continuing education, where we have monthly and weekly and annual quarterly training so they can maintain their certifications.

So. 00:28:49,910	S2:
Okay. Good. So what do you feel are the misconceptions about what you and your team members do as an emergency communication specialist versus or what might surprise someone?

00:29:02,710	S3:
Well, I think what would surprise people is that these are very highly skilled individuals that have, um, certifications in multiple different disciplines. Um, and it's a busy environment. Um, I think a lot of people think it's just a call center where you call 901 and they put it in and send somebody. Um, but we have a critical role in making sure we're sending the right help at the right response mode and, and providing directives to them so they can, you know, stay safe until we get there. So, um, every call, we never we never know when you answer the phone what's going to what it's going to be. So you got to be spring loaded for the worst emergency it could possibly be. Um, and a lot of people don't understand how skilled and, um, competent that everybody is up there, so. Sure. Well, another issue that we have misconceptions is they think that the 901 system is, I don't know, the number for the police department, so I'm just going to call 911. And so I would guess that maybe half of the 911 calls we get are, um, non-emergency situations. And what people I don't think realize is that every time they're using up a 911 line, somebody else can't get through so well. We'll try and educate people when they call and they'll say, yeah, there's a barking dog. Said, well, in the future, if this happens, I'll give you another number that'll make it easier for you to get through to us instead of tying up A911 line. So good.

00:30:33,470	S2:
So what challenges and or opportunities do you see in the next 5 to 10 years for. For the call center?

00:30:39,640	S3:
Well, one of the things that's coming, it's not here yet, but there is going to be an opportunity or a system that's going to be allowed. Allow us to send a link to a caller that we can actually hook their camera right up to our dispatch console, so we can get a real time camera footage from a scene, which could be critical for responding agencies so that video feeds will be able to get that. Now, there's some places in the country that are testing it out and will eventually have it, but that's one of the things I'm pretty excited about. Another one is the artificial intelligence, or AI. Um, there's all kinds of different, uh, um, uses for that. The thing that we're using for right now is in our training, we use AI to generate simulations in our training room. Um, but there's going to be some, some other stuff coming, such as transcriptions and things like that.

00:31:34,200	S2:
So, Good.

00:31:35,769	S3:
Um, as far as recruiting, I think is one of our biggest challenges. We, when we do open the job, I think people, when they find out that, you know, it's shift work and you get holidays, you're working sometimes and and nights and days and weekends that a lot of people kind of get scared off by that. But I would encourage people just, you know, it's public safety. It's a great job. These are great people. It's a great benefits with this job. And the pay is great for the city of Bismarck. And I would encourage people, if you have any interest at all in public safety or dispatching, this would be a, I think, a great opportunity for them.

00:32:13,569	S2:
Good. And I would agree. And it's it's an essential service that we provide to our community. Yes. And it's more than just Bismarck. Yes. Um, like I said, we're regional with this. And so yeah. Well, Tom, thank you for joining me today on Bismarck Insights. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

00:32:28,410	S3:
Okay.

00:32:41,289	S1:
Thank you for watching Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz. If you have specific topics or questions you'd like addressed in future episodes. Email mschmitz@bismarcknd.gov.

00:32:54,849	S1:
For call the City of Bismarck at (701) 355-1300.

00:32:59,289	S1:
To learn more about the City of Bismarck, visit BismarckND.gov. Or follow us on a variety of social media channels by searching BismarckNDgov. Bismarck Insights is a collaboration between Dakota Media Access and the City of Bismarck. You may find Bismarck Insights episodes on Government Access channels two and 602, as well as on Roku, Apple TV, and fire TV devices on Radio Access 102.5 FM and on demand at FreeTV.org.