Delaware Cop 'Shake It Off' Dashboard Cam Video Gains Global Attention

A Dover, Delaware, Police officer knows how to “Shake It Off.” A viral video shows the cop bopping to Taylor Swift’s hit song as part of a series called “Dash Cam Confessionals.” It had more than 4 million views from all over the world by late Saturday.

“While reviewing in-car cameras we tend to see some ‘interesting’ things,” the video introduction reads. “We decided to share some of them with you in a new series called Dash Cam Confessionals.” The video then cuts to Master Cpl. Jeff Davies lip-syncing to the lyrics and dancing as he is driving around in his squad car.

Davis, who knew he was being filmed, lip-syncs flawlessly and attributes his familiarity with the lyrics to his 10-year old daughter. "When you drive around in a car all the time listening to Taylor Swift, you get to know all the words and like her songs," Davis told CNN.

The video is a publicity effort by Dover Police Public Affairs Officer Mark Hoffman to try to improve the negative image of police resulting from the cop-related deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. “We wanted to do something special for our local followers on Facebook after we hit 10,000 followers, so I put a GoPro on the dashboard and figured, what could be funnier than a 48-year-old fat guy jamming to Taylor Swift,” Hoffman told Christian Science Monitor. “Jeff Davis is kind of the class clown of the force, and I knew he’d be game to do it.”

“I thought that maybe it would help a little to counter all the bad feelings people have had about police over the past four months,” Davis told the Monitor. “But I never, in my wildest, ever imagined it would become so popular that almost overnight we’re getting calls from people in Germany who loved the video.” The video, which took 45 minutes to record and minimal editing, gained more than 250,000 views within the first 24 hours, Hoffman told the Monitor. The occasional pauses where Davis seemed to be waiting for passing vehicles were actually the breaks in the video’s two takes in a secluded parking lot in Dover, CNN said.

Hoffman said the department would not rest on its laurels and plans to make another video soon, the Monitor said. “I know that given this success we should just drop the mic and exit at the top of our game, but we will have more coming in another month or so.”