It all started right here in Minnesota!

You may have seen videos going around the internet lately of various police departments competing in lip sync challenges. A recent video of Norfolk, VA's PD lip syncing Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" has racked up over 14 million views and 447k shares on Facebook. One commenter even said it "won the internet."

While I don't want to poo poo on the great work these police departments are doing in showing their fun and goofy sides, we need to give credit where credit is due, where it all started -- right here in Minnesota.

In trying to find who started the whole lip sync challenge between PD's, I found this video by the Apple Valley PD dating back to September 2016.

Curious to know whether they were the start of the lip sync trend, I contacted the Apple Valley PD and spoke with Support Services Captain Nick Francis, who confirmed that they had indeed begun the lip sync challenge.

"At the beginning there, it was right when this 'Running Man Challenge' was going on," Nick said, "Everyone was doing those, and they were kind of overplayed. So we said, well why don't we do a lip sync challenge."

So they did, lip syncing to The Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and challenging Dakota County Police Department.

Their video was picked up by WCCO Channel 4 with the headline, "Goodbye 'Running Man Challenge,' Hello #LipSyncChallenge!" and the rest, as they say, is history.

Dakota County Police Department responded with an impressive video of their own including sky-divers, skaters, bikers, and a display of their vehicle fleet calling out Washington County.

Washington county responded, and the trend continued and apparently continues to keep going, making a recent resurgence. Coon Rapids PD made local news going into the 4th of July for their lip sync cover of Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now," Anoka County Sheriff's Office covered Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story, and Dilworth's PD is the latest to make news for a rendition of Madness' "Driving in My Car." You can watch them all below.

In conclusion, Captain Nick put it best: "It all started right here in [Minnesota]; it just took the rest of the country a little while to catch on."

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