Meet the officers behind Skokie PD's 'Lip Sync Challenge' success

ByJesse Kirsch WLS logo
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Meet the officers behind Skokie PD's 'Lip Sync Challenge' success
Thanks to their sweet moves, the Skokie Police are an overnight social media hit.

SKOKIE, Ill. (WLS) -- Thanks to their sweet moves, the Skokie Police are an overnight social media hit.

"We didn't think it would go this viral....that was ridiculous," said Officer Rob Ochoa in reaction to the nearly 2 million views his department's lip-sync battle entry has received online.

Ochoa was the mastermind, going off of a tip from his mom, who he said told him to check out the various videos going viral recently.

"I looked over them and I was like 'man these are pretty good, this looks fun,'" he said.

Inspired, Ochoa enlisted the help fellow Officer Yunsoo Shin-who already had some dance moves at the ready.

"You just have to bounce a lot," he said while going through the Gagnam Style routine he led in the video.

Next thing you know, they had a couple dozen officers volunteering to dance alongside them. Plus, Heather Jackson from Skokie's Kaleidoscope Dance choreographed for free to help out her community.

"If I can teach 3-year-olds to plie, I can definitely teach the Skokie police department Gangnam style," she said of her thought process.

The 12-song video involved some elaborate routines including NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye."

"We probably spent about an hour doing that," Jackson estimated.

After practice, the entire team spent hours producing the video, with a crew that also donated its resources.

"Our job is extremely stressful. So the fact that we had so many people come out and volunteer their time to do this, in my opinion really showcases that behind the badge, behind the gun, behind the vest and all that stuff... police officers, we're just the same as anyone else," said Ochoa.

Now, Skokie PD can brag about their five-minute extravaganza that Ochoa thinks would be hard to top.

"We got a drone shot in there... bring it on," he said.

He also hinted there may be a sequel to come, so whichever department takes on Skokie's police will need a major hop in its step.