The Flower Mound Police Department won the first place national award from City-County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) on Sept. 7 for their “Tipline Bling” music video.
MHS Student Resource Officer (SRO) Mike Anderson and MHS9 Officer Joe Gray teamed up with Flower Mound High School SRO Jason Rachal and Justin Lobello to create the video.
Rachal came up with the idea for the tipline music video after Flower Mound High School students started to call him “Officer Drake,” for his physical resemblance to the rapper.
Embracing his new nickname and drawing inspiration from Drake’s hit song “Hotline Bling”, Rachal asked Flower Mound Media Communications to film a parody of the video.
The goal of the video was to bring awareness to the tipline, a way for students to reach out to their SROs.
Anderson and Gray were put in front of a green screen and told to dance as ridiculous as possible. After four to five hours of filming for two days, “Tipline Bling” was finally finished.
The two officers are passionate about the tipline, and believe it makes a huge impact in student’s lives on and off campus.
Bullying, sexting and depression are some of the issues that are reported to the tipline.
“Even though we make announcements and put up posters, you can’t assume everyone knows about [the tipline],” Anderson said. “I think it created awareness.” Anderson and Gray shared the video with family and friends. They made fun of the officers for dancing, but thought the tipline was a great outlet for teenagers to get help if needed.
“If me getting embarrassed a little bit creates awareness and has success stories that come from the tipline…then I’m willing to do that all day long,” Anderson said.
The tipline started receiving more calls after the video was shown to the student body last year, but it really took off during the last four months of the school year.
So far, the video has over 2,000 views on the Town of Flower Mound’s Youtube channel.
The officers want students to come to them with any problem and trust that everything said will remain confidential.
“We can’t read minds or tell what kind of struggles someone is going through,” Gray said. “We need people to reach out.”
Although it was created to help students, some have concerns about the tipline. They’re afraid it is not truly anonymous.
Anderson wants to reassure the students they do receive the student’s numbers but only look them up if the situation puts a student in an serious imminent risk.
The officers know that the first time they leak out a student’s information, they might as well shut down the tipline.
Due to the increase of reported tips last year, Anderson and Gray believe they established trust with the student body.
“At the end of the day, this is your school. If there is something that’s going on in the school that makes you feel uncomfortable or you don’t like,” Anderson said. “This is your avenue to report it.”
