Officers In ‘Centerfield’
Video To Air At Benefit Softball Game Saturday
Bristol police sing, dance and play ball for a lip sync YouTube video to debut Saturday.
BRISTOL — Jerry Brick and Megan Major are bobbing their heads to the music, relaxing on a sunny afternoon in their blue sports car when the police motorcycle — lights flashing — pulls up behind them.
A few moments later, rookie police Officer Michael Marino is singing about Joe DiMaggio while writing out a speeding ticket for the chastened Brick.
Producer Tom Mazzarella inter- rupts, and coaches Marino to put a bit more flair into it.
“Here’s what I want you to do: When you’re done, rip that thing off and hand it to him,” Mazzarella says, tearing off a ticket with a flourish.
The next take is a keeper, and Mazzarella sets up his camera for a different shot.
The scene is the Zoomer’s Gas n’ Go kiddie ride at Lake Compounce, one of a dozen locations where Bristol police filmed their entry into the lip sync video competition that has been sweeping YouTube since early summer.
In late August and early September, about 20 uniformed officers and a half-dozen civilian employees line danced and sang for Mazzarella’s camera.
Their video — to the tune of John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” — is set to debut Saturday night at the local police vs. firefighters benefit softball game at Muzzy Field. The police union intends to post the video to YouTube after the game.
“We put quite a lot of effort into it. It’s our way of paying it back. We’re really thankful to this city and the people here, they’re generally very supportive,” said Officer Christopher Cote, who danced in a number of scenes.
All summer long, hundreds of police departments across the country have been plastering YouTube with videos of officers and dispatchers lip-syncing to songs ranging from Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”
The idea is to show police as human and fun-loving at a time when they are under increasing criticism for fatal shootings and accusations of brutality. Many videos feature officers dancing alongside youngsters and other civilians, all to help improve relations with the public as well as morale in the department.
Bristol’s 125-officer department decided to produce its own, and Mazzarella, a professional videographer and co-founder of MazzMedia, volunteered to film it.
Cote’s daughter, Julia, who teaches choreography, came up with the concept and wrote the script.
“We were thinking of another song, but we had a meeting about it and she came in with ‘Centerfield.’ It was a great idea,” said Officer James Pelletier, head of the police union.
The story line is that a young amateur baseball ballplayer in Bristol wants to be a police officer; the video follows him through field training. Marino, 22 and the department’s newest officer, plays the role of the rookie.
“I was nervous, you know, the young guy where everyone is watching you. But a lot of our officers came out and made me feel at home, they made it a lot easier,” Marino said.
As he sings along to Fogerty’s lyrics, Marino is shown at some of the city’s major landmarks: Lake Compounce, ESPN’s studios and historic Muzzy Field.
“The scenes show a lot of Bristol. Muzzy Field is iconic, and Bristol has a lot of baseball history,” Chris Cote said.
He and Pelletier credit Mazzarella for donating dozens of hours of time filming and editing. Officers — nearly all off duty — spent hours at a time recording scenes.
Since there was no budget, they recruited volunteers at each location. At Lake Compounce, they got Brick and Major to play the motorists Marino pulled over, and use a Zoomer’s kiddie car as the prop.
To show a full crowd in the bleachers at Muzzy, they showed up at Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu’s pre-school gathering at the ballpark for 500 youngsters. Mazzarella used a drone and traditional cameras to capture a vast, cheering audience.
With the final version ready to debut, Bristol has joined the list of Connecticut departments with lipsync videos: North Branford, New Haven, Windsor, Enfield, East Haven, Waterford, East Windsor and Rocky Hill, among others.
Marino and his colleagues hope it will help strengthen relations with residents. As the son and nephew of veteran police officers, Marino always wanted to go into law enforcement, he said. Despite the spread of public skepticism about police, he wouldn’t choose any other career, he said.
“I knew what the job entailed, but it’s something I thought I’d be good at. Some people you deal with won’t like you, but you can help other people who want to be helped — you can be there for people who can’t protect themselves,” Marino said.
“Sometimes we get a medical call for an elderly person. They don’t have anybody else there, maybe you can talk and make them feel a little better,” he said.
Cote, who like Marino is a front-line patrol officer, hopes the video shows a different side of police.
“We’re no different than the people in the community we serve — we all have families and friends we care about,” Cote said. “At the end of the day, most people in America want to take care of other people. Those are common goals.”