Middletown police were just trying to connect with their community on Facebook. Then they went national.

Middletown Police Department’s Lip Sync Challenge video has been chosen as one of the Top 30 in the country, the only from Ohio, and is eligible for the voting phase of the CBS Special, “Lip Sync To The Rescue,” hosted by Cedric the Entertainer.

Fans can vote for their favorite videos and the top vote-getters will be featured in the CBS special. “Lip Sync To The Rescue” will be filming in Los Angeles this summer.

In the video, officers are seen craving doughnuts, and once the empty boxes in the office are replenished, stuffing their faces with doughnuts. Chief Rodney Muterspaw said it took about one hour to shoot the video, and while some officers were reluctant at first, he said everyone seemed to enjoy the experience.

Middletown’s video also attracted the attention of country music group Lady Antebellum, whose song “Need You Now” is lip synced by Middletown Police. The group tweeted that the video was “amazing.”

Then when Lady Antebellum performed at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati last year, several members of the police department were allowed backstage to meet the band.

Muterspaw called meeting the band “an awesome experience” and called the members “really down to earth people.”

The lip sync videos, and others posted of the department’s Facebook page, “show the human side” of the officers, he said.

Muterspaw said “times have changed” and social media has “built up the relationship between police and the community.”

Inspired by the recent viral video phenomenon Lip Sync Challenge, CBS announced a new one-hour entertainment special, Lip Sync to the Rescue, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, star of CBS’ hit comedy The Neighborhood, to be broadcast later this year on the CBS Television Network.

Lip Sync to the Rescue is an interactive countdown special where viewers vote for their favorite video of performances featuring first responders channeling their inner pop stars and lip-syncing to hit music, a trend that began with the LipSyncChallenge, the network said.

Then, during Lip Sync to the Rescue, the Top 10 videos selected will be revealed during the show, which will film in front of an audience of first responders, family and friends. Two videos will advance to the live vote during the broadcast to crown a winner.

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