Letter from Erick Counts
Valley City, N.D.
    During the early morning of Sunday, March 30, six different establishments in Valley City happened to be broken into. Now one may ask how in such a small North Dakota town a feat such as breaking into and robbing places of business such as Farmers Union Insurance and NoDak Mutual, both businesses located on Valley City’s Main Street is possible while there is a fully staffed police force just blocks away from where the crimes have been committed? I believe I may be able to shed some light on the answer: Valley City Police Department has its priorities mixed up.  
    Unknown to a majority of the Valley City public, the VCPD happened to be busy that very night -- not only the VCPD, but the Barnes County Sheriff’s office happened to be in the mix as well.      

What had the police department and sheriff department so occupied you ask? Well, there was a noise disturbance reported at 253 College St. SE. In response to the noise disturbance, police officers were dispatched to the address. Around 2 a.m. upon the arrival of the police to the noise disturbance, which turned out to be a college party, the noise ceased. When the police were not allowed inside the apartment in which the party was happening, they chose to wait outside both exits and in the parking lot of the building awaiting the exit of minors in possession of alcohol by consumption. At 5 a.m., the apartment was served a search warrant for the premises.      Eye witnesses claim to have seen at one point four uniformed VCPD officers outside the apartment and its building. At 5 a.m., the Barnes County Sheriff’s Office arrived to serve a search warrant, this bringing the uniform total to six. Shortly after the warrant was served the Valley City Chief of Police Dean Ross himself made an appearance and stayed until all the uniforms were gone, raising the total to seven uniformed police officers and sheriff deputies.     In a personal phone conversation with Detective Mark McDonald, of the Valley City Police Department, I was not given an official number of citations given out from the busted party but he was able to guess a ballpark figure of 13 total arrests, this not including the number of people given Minor in Possession of Alcohol by Consumption citations and allowed to go home.     So allow me to recap the situation: On the early morning of March 30, the burglary of NoDak Mutual, Nance’s Hair Styling, Professional Eye Care, Farmers Union Insurance, American Family Insurance, and Bitz Tire took place, five of the establishments located on Valley City’s Main Street, while a total of four of VCPD’s officers and the Chief of Police Dean Ross accompanied by two Barnes County Deputies were not patrolling the streets of the city and county they swore to protect and serve, but in fact were located at 253 College St. SE. serving a search warrant in which their reasoning was to look for “alcoholic beverages and persons under 21” as it reads on the actual warrant.
    I feel sorry for the owners who were sleeping sound in their beds thinking that the very business which they make a living and assumed was being protected was in fact being burgled.