The time of their lives

Renton police and fire in sync in viral video challenge

By Haley Ausbun • August 18, 2018 1:30 pm
Photo courtesy of Renton Police Department Officers and Firefighters learning the dance moves for the video.
Photo courtesy of Renton Police Department Officers and Firefighters learning the dance moves for the video.

Last week Renton Police Department released its lip-sync video with a twist on a timeless movie quote:

“Nobody puts fire in a corner.”

The video, part of a nationwide trend of police departments, was coordinated by Renton Police Department Community Programs Coordinator Stephanie Hynes.

While she said the department originally chose the song “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars, they changed it to “Time of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing” after Norfolk Police Department used the song.

While most videos use modern songs, Hynes said their video was more of a trip down memory lane, and sometimes more dancing than lip-syncing.

A Renton police officer and firefighter dance together with lighthearted dance moves slightly altered from the movie version. Hynes also noted they were in reversed gender roles in the video.

The video was coordinated in the span of three days by Hynes, who had the help of Renton Chamber of Commerce’s Ben Andrews. The chamber also donated all the supplies for filming the video. Renton Police Department partnered with the chamber, Seattle Film Summit, Renton City Comicon, Slager Fuj Creative Media and Peg Leg Pictures. The video took about three hours to film.

Hynes said she also worked with Renton Fire’s Communications Manager Katie Lewis and firefighter Justin Onley to recruit more firefighters for the video and secure Fire Station 11 for filming. Hynes said she didn’t have firefighters for the video besides Onley until 30 minutes before filming.

Hynes added they always knew they wanted to film the video with Renton Regional Fire Authority because of their good relationship, and the fun they have with their “rivalry” in previous community engagement events.

The Renton Police Department was nominated by Renton community members, and they had intended to release the video earlier but postponed it out of respect of the death of Kent Police Officer Diego Moreno.

In the first scene in the video, which was filmed later, included an officer with black tape over their badge, something officers were doing in honor of Moreno.

They also didn’t nominate another department due to this recent loss in the local law enforcement community.