By Amy Poulter
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. — $100,000. That’s how much money the Norfolk Police Department just bagged. All it took was a little bit of funk, one flawless film shot and a majority vote.
The department won the cash and the honor Monday night on the CBS TV show “Lip Sync to the Rescue.”
“This has been such an awesome experience,” Public Information Officer William Pickering said during the live taping. “Thank you so much!”
Norfolk’s department was one of 30 to make it to the one-hour show. The team was chosen from a pool of about 1,000 applicants, according to the show’s host, Cedric the Entertainer.
Last July, the department posted the video to their Facebook page after they were challenged by police in Corinth, Texas. Dozens of officers, first responders and city staff could be seen lip-syncing and grooving all through downtown to Mark Ronson’s hit, “Uptown Funk,” featuring Bruno Mars.
As of Monday, the department’s video had more than 80 million views and was one of the only challenges to set the internet ablaze.
[Read: Norfolk PD also made it into PoliceOne’s Top 15 #LipSyncChallenge videos.]
The department went up against Seattle Police Department during the live voting round on the show. Norfolk police had challenged Seattle police to make their own video last July.
Public Information Officers JoAnn Hughes and Officer Christopher Tavares also attended Monday night.
Hughes – whose nickname is the “silver fox,” Police Chief Larry Boone said in a pre-recorded interview on the show – said the success of the video led to greater trust between the community and police department.
During the show, Pickering said they filmed their video in one take using some of his dad’s equipment and a cell phone.
Congrats, Norfolk police. You’re officially lip-sync champions. But we already knew that, didn’t we?
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©2019 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)