CPD ‘Can’t Stop Believin’ and “Can’t Drive 55′ in lip sync offering featuring a local celebrity

Columbus police officers posted a lip sync video for the ages Monday, attempting to “break the Internet” and challenge other departments with a celebrity surprise.

The 4-minute video, part of a lip sync craze that’s taken over public service agencies nationwide, was filmed Wednesday and Thursday during the officers’ free time. It involved 10 to 12 hours of filming, going into the early morning hours, edited down to the length of a music video.

Packed with its share of surprises, the biggest comes at the beginning. Columbus native and NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, driving his black truck, is chased by three female Columbus Police Department officers to the tune of Sammy Hagar’s 1984 release, “I Can’t Drive 55.”

There is a clue that you’re about to see Stewart in the truck, which goes airborne over an unidentified county road hill. A close-up of the driver’s hands show his championship rings while gripping the steering wheel.

“Professional driver on closed course,” text on the video warns. “Do not attempt.”

As he stops and gets out of the truck, Stewart raises his hands as the 1983 Bonnie Tyler tune, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” plays, and the Columbus officers lip sync the “turn around” part to Stewart as he responds, at one point with a wink, “Every now and then I fall apart.”

The video then careens through the Columbus Police locker room, where officers recreate Britney Spears’ 1999 “Oh Baby One More Time,” a group dance to “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey from 1981 in Mill Race Park and the “Friends” television show intro, staged in the Cummins fountain downtown, complete with the officers getting completely soaked, in uniform.

“We worked really hard on this and we had a lot of fun,” said Sgt. Courtney Plummer, who collaborated with Columbus East High School resource officer Julie Quesenbery, officer Angie Owens and Lt. Matt Harris, the department’s public information officer, to recruit officers for the filming.

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.