Police officers around central Arkansas are trying to share a message without saying a word.
Several of them have posted videos for the Law Enforcement Lip Sync Challenge. Officers record themselves lip syncing to various songs, then challenge colleagues at other agencies.
The Conway Police Department posted a video on Monday featuring officers Dan Worley and Ivan Cortes. Worley said his wife, a detective with CPD, first told him about the concept last week, and everything there was eager to join the fun.
“I think this kinda lets people know that, hey, we’re people just like you,” Worley said. “We can, kind of, be fun and interact, and be part of the community, as well.”
More than 78,000 people had watched their video as of Monday evening. In it, the officers perform to “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood & the Destroyers, “Love is an Open Door” from the “Frozen” soundtrack, and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston.
Worley said they each chose their songs and joked that Cortes’ selection might haunt him. “He had a nickname before that, but after that, I think everybody…it’s gonna stick. He’s gonna be Frozen, probably,” he said.
While planning their video, Worley said he watched others made by other departments. He said he was awestruck by the effort from the Sherman, Texas Police Department, where more than a dozen officers mimicked the movie “Top Gun” and sang The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.”
“I was taken away by how awesome it was. I mean, it looked like a movie production,” he said. “Everything looked great. And I kept thinking, there’s no way our video’s going to be this awesome. But then I kind of took a step back and said, you know what? It’s the public that has reached out to us. The public here in Conway wants to see a video from us, so let’s give the public a video, not the nation.”
Worley said CPD puts an emphasis on community interaction, and a silly video like this can make a big impression on those they serve.
“We deal with people on their bad days,” he mentioned, “and, I mean, that’s all there is to it. So, they don’t really get to see us as just people; they see us as police. So, getting to interact with the public, either through the video sharing on Facebook or getting to go to special events, it’s an awesome opportunity.”
Worley is a field training officer, and Cortes was his rookie until Monday, when he earned his clearance to begin working on his own. Worley thinks making the video helped show him what it means to be a police officer. During an office’s 12 weeks of training, “you only get to see so much, and the rest of that is: you learn on your own,” he said. “So, for him to be able to engage and get to do something like that, it’s pretty awesome. He was ecstatic about it. He was super happy.”
And, hopefully, citizens will be happier to help officers solve crimes. “A lot of the crimes we have,” he said, “a lot of the calls we have are generally helping us solve those crimes--by the public. You know, they’re calling us, telling us, ‘here’s what’s going on.’ Without that call, you know, we don’t know to go to this address and deal with what we’re doing.”
Worley said the video took 15 minutes to film, and they edited it over the weekend between calls so it did not interfere with their work. They initially hoped to be the first department in Arkansas to release a Law Enforcement Lip Sync Challenge video, but editing delays allowed a couple of others to post their first. To see more of the videos created by local departments, click here.
Related Headlines: