Police officers are stereotypically portrayed as hard, cold, authoritative individuals who eat a lot of donuts. And while this is sometimes true, every cop is an individual and is able to add a bit of personality to their daily operations. This pair of cops love nothing more than bringing joy to the community through singing.
Michael Norwood and Moe Badger are well-respected police officers in their Buffalo, NY community. They take their jobs seriously and the safety and wellbeing of the people around them are paramount. However, they also happen to have great singing voices and have chosen to use them to their advantage.
The cop duo consists of a former college basketball player and a gospel singer. Make no mistake about it though – both of them can sing! The pair noticed they had a good thing happening when they were recorded singing at a Buffalo restaurant.
It was just a matter of time before their beautiful voices went viral and Norwood and Badger decided to up the ante. “People are always saying, ‘When are you guys ever gonna start working?'” Norwood said. “And it’s like – we are working, this is how we work.”
“When people see us, people demand us to sing now. They won’t take no for an answer. They don’t care what’s goin’ on,” he said. “Like, I remember we had somebody pulled over. He goes, ‘You’re the singin’ cops. I want a song right now,'” Norwood laughed. “I’m like, ‘Sir, what about your license?'”
Although they are careful not to let the good vibes get in the way of their duties as police officers, Norwood and Badger are happy to sing their way through the community. They even organized an initiative calls “COPSS” or “Children Overcoming Police Stereotypes Through Sports.”
So the cops organize basketball events for Buffalo kids to help them stay away from trouble on the streets. “It definitely changes the narrative of what we’ve seen,” Badger claimed. “Through building these relationships in these schools – now, these same kids are not only embracing – police officers, but now they’re coming to us saying, ‘Hey, I wanna be like you.'”
“You know, in our community, that’s kind of taboo, to be honest with you. There’s definitely been a divide between our community and the police officers. And our whole mission has to been to mend that divide. It’s working.”