This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/25/2018 12:00 AMThe Guilford Police serve and protect, but they also sing and dance. On Sept. 20, the Guilford Police Department released its lip synch challenge video, a video that highlights the geographic gems of Guilford as well as the people.
The police lip sync challenge swept the shoreline this summer. The Guilford Police Department (GPD) was challenged by the North Branford Police Department in mid–August and the GPD took a few weeks to respond—a fact alluded to when the video opens with a clip of GPD Chief Jeff Hutchinson telling his officers he wants to see them get this video done.
Under the direction of Guilford High School cinematography students and teacher Nick Ripa, filming took place over a few days across various locations in town. Sergeant Sandra Brooks, who led the video filming initiative, said the department wanted to make the video not just about the police, but about Guilford and the spirit of Guilford.
“Guilford is one of the largest towns in the State of Connecticut and people don’t realize that,” she said. “We have farms, we have the Sound, we have a lot of history in this town, and we actually have one of the most beautiful greens in the state. The Henry Whitfield House is on our patch and it’s a very significant part of us, we wear it every day on our sleeve.”
The video starts with police officers being told to essentially get the show on the road in terms of pulling a video together, getting primped, and then hitting the road to answer calls. Officers first respond to the report of a horse in the road in the area of Hoop Hill Road and Lake Drive—that’s when the show begins.
After leaving the department, officers are then seen up at Lakeside Feed, singing with the animals despite rainy conditions. Later, officers are seen approaching the Henry Whitfield House where residents in historical costumes pop out to join in the fun. In the transition, country music superstar Toby Keith makes an appearance, too.
“We are a very community-oriented town and we wanted to have community members, so we chose the Henry Whitfield House and the Green as two areas that would be easy to incorporate the public and at two different days and times so we could give everyone who wanted to participate a chance to be there,” she said.
The video also highlights the aquatic elements of Guilford—Jacobs Beach, Grass Island, and Faulkner’s Island—before the video closes with a show on the Guilford Green.
To pull the video together, Brooks said more than 50 percent of the department participated, including animal control, the chiefs, and dispatchers. She said everyone had a lot of fun filming.
“Everyone was a natural and I was shocked,” she said. “The filming could not have gone better…We did a lot of it impromptu and it worked out great that way.”
For officers, pulling the video together was also a family affair.
“We recruited our family members, too,” Brooks said. “My mom happens to be dressed in one of those outfits and so was [Sergeant] Martina [Jakober]’s mom and we borrowed costumes, which worked out really well.”
So who is up next? The Guilford Police Department challenged the Clinton Police Department and a specific department up in Massachusetts.
“We also picked the Hull Massachusetts Police Department, because our former deputy chief John Dunn is now the chief of police in that department,” she said. “He was not getting out of it and he is a very dear person to us and always will be, so we challenged them. And he has already thanked us for the challenge so I expect that they will come through with something.”
The Guilford Police Department would like to thank the following for help making the video: Fire Chief Charles Herrschaft, Assistant Fire Chief Michael Shove, and the entire Guilford Fire Department; Nick Ripa and GHS Digital cinematography students Erik Mastalerz, Eric Lepeak, Matthew Moore, and Connor Sullivan; Rick Maynard and the Guilford Parks & Recreation Department; the Guilford Department of Social Services; Guilford Animal Control; First Selectman Matt Hoey; The Guilford Keeping Society; Bill Lincoln and The Faulkner’s Light Brigade; The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; The Henry Whitfield State Museum; John Rozz, DJ Anthony Avitable, and Sound Spectrum Entertainment; Kimberly Brockett and Mike Cappelli of Tripledale Farm LLC; Will, Patty, Antonio, Toni, and Jerry Schiano and Ally Hughes of Lakeside Feed; Tammy DeFrancesco; Patricia Lovelace; Michael McBride; Foxwoods Resort and Casino; Toby Keith and staff; Courtney Kresge; all of the llamas, goats, donkeys, chicks, and cows that let the department videotape them, and finally all of the Guilford residents who came out to support the officers.
The video can be found on the Guilford Police Department Facebook page.