Jul 29, 2018 3 min read

Who could’ve predicted that Connellsville police were such Swifties?

We have to thank the five CPD officers who lip-synced to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” for making the week a little brighter.

On Wednesday, city Mayor Greg Lincoln posted a video of officers taking part in the nationwide lip-sync challenge undertaken by police departments looking to show the public another side of the men and women who protect and serve.

Detective Lt. Tom Patton, Cpls. Bryan Kendi and Andy Hominsky and Patrolmen Jacob Cavanaugh and Sam Beucher danced in and out of a patrol vehicle to the Swift tune, “singing” their hearts out.

It was nothing short of a spectacular show of raised eyebrows and head bobs, capped off by a choreographed dance routine … and a notice to Swift that they’re all available as backup dancers when she performs for her fans (known as Swifties) at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh next month.

By Friday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 215,000 times on Lincoln’s Facebook page.

We loved seeing that more than just the city’s police got involved in the challenge. Lincoln noted that Armstrong Cable helped with the video, folks from the Premier Dance Center choreographed the dancing and participated, and the Connellsville Area School District offered the parking lot of one of its schools as the filming set.

Rallying the community is something that Lincoln excels at.

His Facebook page is a mixture of community events, recognition of and praise for city residents and notices to his constituents about anything important going on in the city.

He’s the consummate cheerleader for Connellsville, working both in front of and behind the scenes for the betterment of the community.

It’s no surprise, then, that he said he listened to community members who wanted the city’s police department to take part in the challenge. Response to the video across the 1,000-plus comments has been overwhelmingly positive, with some posters challenging other departments to get in on the action.

We hope they do!

The videos give police across the country an opportunity to show their less serious side. The result, we hope, will be that people view them as, well, people.

Society wouldn’t function without the selfless service that so many police officers provide. As people run from danger, they (along with other first responders) are tasked with running toward it. They put their lives on the line daily because it’s what they’ve chosen to do.

Perhaps because we hold them to such a high standard, when a singular officer does something wrong, it imparts, for many, distaste for the entire profession.

It’s unfair to hold the wrongdoing of one against the many, many others who earnestly work to do good and improve their communities.

We’re eager to see if any other area departments will decide to produce their own videos. There are plenty of municipal departments in the area, and we hope they all decide to answer this call.

In the meantime, if you haven’t, head over to Lincoln’s Facebook page and check out Connellsville’s. It’s worth the watch.