The Southlake DPS social media pages won the “Best Long Form Video” Golden Post Award at the national Government Social Media Awards in Palm Springs, California earlier this month. The winning video “The Real Cops of Southlake” was a safety-laden parody of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives” series. The video featured the trademark opening of the show, along with four vignettes, each covering topics such as drunk driving, speed enforcement, and theft prevention tips. It did extremely well on every social platform scoring about 108,000 views, 1,900 likes, and over 600 shares. Southlake DPS has won this award back to back, as they also won last year’s “Best Long Form Video” Golden Post Award for their recruiting video, “Southlake Police Are Hiring,” which featured a George Strait look-a-like singing to “Amarillo By Morning.” “I wrote the ‘Real Cops’ script in 2019, but just didn’t have the know-how, time, or expertise to make it then,” Southlake Public Information Officer Brad Uptmore said. “One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get it filmed, edited, and finished in 2023.” From the opening Andy Cohen sound-a-like (Southlake’s own Ryan Davis) to the police-themed Bravo show ads in the bottom right corner of the screen, Uptmore made sure the flair, graphics, and attitude could be mistaken for a real Bravo TV show. “I watched hundreds of hours of ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ for this project and not for my own amusement,” Uptmore said. “I promise. I only watched hours and hours of the show just for RESEARCH, and not to see the drama-filled, luxurious, and sometimes scandalous adventures of Kyle Richards and the other housewives for many, many seasons. My incessant watching was just for this police project.” Judge feedback included, "Southlake DPS always brings it to the Golden Post Awards! Great visuals, content that informs and engages - you're the social gov team everyone else wants to be." Another judge complimented, "This is AMAZING! I think my favorite part was seeing the popup ads for other shows on the PoePoe network LOL. Your attention to detail, scripting, and play on pop culture were top tier. Fabulous entry!" The Southlake DPS social accounts were also a finalist for “Best Facebook Presence” and “Best Use of Social Media in an Emergency.”
