Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Borough police participate in lip sync challenge
Contest among police began in Texas and has spread nationwide
WEST CHESTER » Challenge accepted. The West Chester Borough Police Department posted on social media that after weeks of emails and social media messages from community members inquiring if the department would participate in the lip sync challenge, the officers released a video on Tuesday.
The video starts off like they are showing how any ordinary day begins with roll call and then it seems like it goes into a daydream, thinking about vacation. But rather than taking their viewers to the beach for vacation, the public gets a ride-along with police officers as they chase a suspect. They include their sense of humor when showing some difficulties and obstacles that they may run into on the job.
They featured a song called “Vacation” by Dirty Heads, which has lyrics of “I’m on vacation, every single day ‘cause I love my occupation.” The police wanted to pick a song that is not too well-known or played often on radio, and one that hadn’t been previously used by
a police department. They also liked that the song represented the fact that they love their job and line of work.
Dave March, the department’s Chief Communications Officer, said the officers began “throwing ideas around” and it didn’t take long for them to figure out on their own what they wanted to do.
“They think on the dime with stuff like that,” March
said.
He said they quickly executed their idea, with permission to produce the video and with the freedom to use their creativity.
“They did a good job with it,” March said.
West Chester Mayor Dianne Herrin agrees.
“I absolutely love the lip sync challenge video our officers produced. It shows their human side and helps us all see they are people, too, who live, love, cry and laugh just like the rest of us,” Herrin said. “What’s more, I think this is the best video in the entire library
of law enforcement lip sync battle videos across the country, hands down. Go West Chester Borough Police Department!”
The video also features parts of the borough and the ram statue at nearby West Chester University.
“We wanted to incorporate the town,” March said. “They choose to look out over the borough. People got a view of what West Chester is like and what the officers are like.”
West Chester police challenged the West Goshen Township Police Department and the Chester County Sheriff’s Office to participate and “show us you have what it takes to play in the borough.” March said they challenged the other departments because “it’s more of a fun thing for our departments around the borough to engage in.”
March explained that social media platforms are meant to involve the community and show another side of the personnel in the police department. The police also use social media to share informational news and events occurring in the area.
“Our community reacted well to seeing our lighter side,” March said.
The lip sync challenge started in June in Texas between police departments and soon it spread through the South and then ultimately nationwide. The videos show officers lip syncing a song, some from their patrol cars, like Tredyffrin police did earlier this month, and others include footage around their coverage area.
The lip sync videos by police officers nationwide have been well-received by community members and the social media posts enable the community members to interact with the police about it.
“The community supports our department pretty well. When we do things like that, we get positive feedback,” March said. “It was a very engaging post.”
West Chester police received more than 700 comments and has nearly 4,000 shares of the post on Facebook.