I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for six years now, and I mostly have complaints.  There is a shortage of women, there is a scarcity of attractive women, the people are unfriendly, co-workers are hostile and undermining, employers and managers hate people with an education, most company managers have criminal records, there is nepotism and discrimination in hiring, most of the bartenders and waitresses at restaurants are drug addicts from Spokane or Seattle, the real estate prices are too high considering that the oil boom is over, and the City of Dickinson Police are over aggressive in following and stopping people.

However, contrary to everything else, I have nothing bad at all to say about the Stark County Sheriff Department.  I wish that the City of Dickinson Police Department, and everything else for that matter, was run like the Stark County Sheriff Department.

I lived outside of Dickinson, in the Stark County Sheriff Department’s jurisdiction for four years, and I was never followed, stopped, or paid any attention to by the Sheriff Deputies.  And, there was absolutely no crime in the neighborhood where I lived.

I will admit, that once you consider anyone who lives outside of the City of Dickinson, their property is worth at least $200,000, and there are no apartments or trailer parks, so the Stark County Sheriff Department Deputies are not dealing with as many drug addict, hoodlum, riff-raff people as the City of Dickinson Police.

However, when driving around outside of the residential neighborhood where I lived for four years, into other areas of Stark County, even though I had an old truck with an out of state license plate, the Stark County Sheriff Deputies still left me alone and they paid no attention to me.

There were about four or five occasions where I had to telephone the Stark County Sheriff Department, several of them I have already written about, where the Stark County Sheriff Deputies were very professional and helpful.  One, when a strange acting young man was hiding in the bushes at Patterson Lake near the newly paved walk path; Two, when a former employee of an oil field service company attempted to “borrow” a trailer at 10:30 p.m.;  Three, Four, and Five when I was looking for my stolen truck, and the thief was hiding in South Heart, Belfield, etcetera.

Now that I think about it, I probably dealt with the Stark County Sheriff Deputies six or seven times.  My impressions was, and is, that the Stark County Sheriff Department was hiring only men over 30, who had prior military service.  The reason why I think this, is because all of the Stark County Sheriff Deputies that I dealt with, were over 30, and they were very confident and calm.

I would describe every interaction with the Stark County Sheriff Deputies as follows:

First, they wanted to get an understanding of what was going on, and they did not have any difficulty understanding what you were telling them, which was a relief, they appeared to be intelligent.  Not only did they understand what you were telling them, at the same time, they understood why you had contacted them about this in the first place, they understood, without even having to ask.

Second, they would ask for additional information or details, which didn’t take long, because they knew right away what else they wanted to know.  Third, they would let you know what they were going to do.  Fourth, they would go and do what they said they were going to do.

The Stark County Sheriff Deputies always appeared to be very professional, experienced, intelligent, competent, and confident.  They all appeared to be ex-military.

I have met and talked to former Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy several times, and I have heard about different controversies surrounding Sheriff Tuhy.  Probably the most well known controversy, was when a group of Sheriff Deputies filed a complaint against Sheriff Tuhy for being verbally abusive.  In the end, the state of North Dakota exonerated Sheriff Tuhy in regard to this complaint.

My opinion is, that even if Sheriff Tuhy was mean to the Stark County Sheriff Deputies at the time, this is was part of the origin of a good, professional Sheriff Department.  Those who might have experienced verbal abuse in the department might strongly disagree with me, but I suspect, even though this type of behavior is not permitted, it was meant to motivate people to be serious, competent, alert, and that their best effort was expected of them.

Regarding the current Stark County Sheriff,  Terry Oestreich, one of the candidates in the upcoming Sheriff election stated to a reporter, that there was something like an 80% turn over in Stark County Sheriff Deputies in something like an 18 month period.  I didn’t like hearing this, because I thought that from what I saw, and the Sheriff Deputies that I had met, that everything was very well run within the Stark County Sheriff Department.

If you stop and think about it, why wouldn’t the Stark County Sheriff Deputies leave Dickinson?  There is a shortage of women, a scarcity of attractive women, the bartender women and waitresses are drug addicts, prostitution is not allowed, there is no where to go, nothing to do, real estate prices are way too high, and the City of Dickinson Police follow everyone and try to stop them.  Why would the Sheriff Deputies want to live in Dickinson?  Why wouldn’t they move away?  They are intelligent, competent, and confident, they could get a job anywhere, they don’t have to stay here.

If Sheriff candidate Sergeant Corey Lee of the Dickinson Police Department does become elected as Sheriff, I hope that he continues the exact same hiring practices, practices, and procedures as Sheriff Terry Oestreich.  In other words, don’t mess this up, and don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.