A national lip-sync battle among law enforcement agencies has hit Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Police Department was one of the first agencies in Arkansas to get involved with the social media movement that began last month. In a video posted July 6, officer Gavin Hurst lip-synced to Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do." He can be seen dancing and dangling a pair of handcuffs as another officer, Jasmine Boyd, laughs in the background as she records.
"I wanted to get involved because we're using it as a form of community policing to let citizens know that we like to have fun," Hurst said. "We’re humans, too. We’re not the bad guys. Everyone is loving it."
[VIDEOS: See Arkansas law enforcement officers strut their stuff in lip-sync challenge posts]
The video was followed just a day later by one from the Dallas County sheriff's office. In that video, deputies lounge on the hood of a patrol car while Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" plays in the background. As the music transitions to "I've Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, the deputies continue dancing until someone comes to reprimand them for shirking their duties.
"We just made it up off the top of our heads," Deputy Jacob Cain said. "It will be interesting to see where it goes. We might decide to do a remix of it. If somebody in Arkansas decides to step it up like we did, we might have to step it up a couple notches, too."
The video had more than 200,000 views as of Monday afternoon, while the UALR department's post had more than 11,000 views.
After that, the videos just kept coming. On Monday, the Conway Police Department posted a video to its Facebook page showing officers Dan Worley and Ivan Cortes duking it out in a lip-sync battle with new hits like Frozen's "Love is an Open Door" and classics like Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."
The Lawrence County sheriff's office and the Prescott and Clarendon police departments have also joined the fun with songs by Lady Gaga and Sam Hunt.
The movement grew from a series of videos posted by law enforcement in Texas. On June 19, the Bexar County sheriff's office posted a Facebook video of an officer lip-syncing to The Kumbia Kings’ song “Fuiste Mala" with the caption, "Recruiting deputy Alexander Mena may not have the singing skills as some of our other talented deputies. However, he’s got a mean lip sync not many can beat."
The video went viral with nearly 1.5 million views and prompted other agencies to post their own videos in response. Each post includes a challenge to specific police departments or sheriff's offices.
"It’s bringing departments closer together because you’re challenging each other," Hurst said. "This is a big positive thing, and it’s great to see law enforcement connected with the news in a positive way."