CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the Charleston Police Department are showing off some serious pop song skills with help from One Direction.
The department out of West Virginia’s Capital City, utilizing the video production capabilities of Filmanatix, is the latest to take the Lip Sync Challenge, a social media outreach effort.
“Luckily, it was lip-sync. I didn’t have to sing it,” Patrolman Zach Cyrus said of his contribution to the music video set to One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.”
It was released on Monday night.
Across the United States, such videos featuring law enforcement officers have gone viral.
“I want them to know that, yes, we are police officers and we deal with serious situations on a daily basis. However, we are human too and we can cut loose and have a good time as well,” Cyrus said of Charleston’s Lip Sync Challenge video.
Sgt. Matt Webb, a nearly 20 year veteran of the Charleston Police Department, helped spearhead the effort and is featured prominently in the video that was filmed at various Charleston locations between Friday and Monday with help from community members.
“A lot of kids that deal with the police, when they’re dealing with us, it’s a heavy and serious time and I think it’s important for them to see us in a light that’s definitely not heavy, nor serious,” Webb said.
Sites included Yeager Airport, the Charleston Civic Center, the State Capitol, the Charleston Town Center Mall, Adelphia Sports Bar and Grille, Capitol Street and the University of Charleston along with others.
Those with Filmanatix chose the song for the challenge.
“We wanted something that was really fun, would show off the personalities of the Department well, but also be shareable. We wanted this to go viral,” said Blake Oliver, a partner with Filmanatix which is based in Charleston.
After first being approached about the project last week, Filmanatix produced the video quickly at no charge.
“We were a little apprehensive at first, but then once we saw what it was going to do it and how it would turn out, we got really excited and we couldn’t not be a part of it,” Oliver said.
The video’s Monday release coincided with One Direction’s 8th anniversary.
“Most of all, it highlights the caring and the energy and the optimism of a lot of our young police officers,” said Charleston Police Chief Steve Cooper who complimented the acting and dancing skills of his officers.
Many of the officers come from the Charleston Police Department’s Patrol Division.
“We really made them get into the song and, I think, their personalities really showed through in the final product,” Oliver said.
The ending of the video was filmed with help from kids at the Bob Burdette Center, based at Charleston’s Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Cpl. Eddie Whitehead helped arrange that part of the production.
“The kids, they really enjoyed it. I especially liked that Filmanatix focused more on them,” he said. It’s the kind of outreach that he said works with young people.
“The way these kids are now, they’re all about any kind of challenges, viral videos. They know what’s coming before we do most of the time.”
In that, Chief Cooper sees opportunity.
“Our relationships with the community in the future depend on the relationships we build with the youth now,” he said.