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Baltimore Police Officer Ennis rocks Juju on that Beat, goes viral

Challenges others to get up and dance
Posted at 1:19 PM, Oct 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-25 18:20:03-04

There was the Running Man Challenge, and now Juju on that Beat is catching fire online. One Baltimore Police Officer put her twist on the dance, creating a viral sensation.

Officer Kellie Ennis has been with the BPD since 2002, working to provide for herself and her two kids, 11-year-old Eric and 19-year-old Jaeda.

For years she's busted a move with her son, and once dances started showing up all over social media, Eric took it upon himself to teach his mom.

"Oh betcha can't whip like me," are things he said teasingly to get her to bust a move.

"He dances all the time, I dance with him...We did it [Juju on that Beat] last week and we recorded it and uploaded it and I was like teach me some more, and he taught me the whole thing, and I kept doing it ever since, so every time I hear the song I just break out," Officer Ennis said.

Then Officer Ennis was put to the test while at work.

A chiropractic office called BPD, then hung up, so Officer Ennis was sent to make sure everyone was okay. She pulled up, everything was fine and she started talking with a coworker about Juju on that Beat and another lady chimed in.

"She was like 'Oh! You can do that?' and I'm like 'Yeah! I can do it.' Then my friend was like 'I bet you won't do it now.' And I said, 'Oh, I bet I will.' And then he put the music on and I did my thing," Officer Ennis said.

She uploaded the video to Facebook last Saturday with the caption 'I crack myself up.' Now it has more than 100,000 views.

"Yesterday, after I completed a call some kids came up and they're like 'That's you?' And I'm like yeah, and they're like 'Let's do it!' And we did it," Officer Ennis said it makes her feel awesome to connect with the community.

Some criticism has come out through the comments section, accusing Officer Ennis of being disrespectful to her uniform, and wasting time while on the job. 

She brushed it off saying, "I'm real, I'm not perfect, and I'm doing it for fun."

Being able to connect with the community for Officer Ennis is particularly special, as distrust between members of the public and police runs deep in Baltimore, something that was visible during the 2015 riots.

"It gives me an opportunity to engage with the community. People can relate to it, so when they see me, it's not like oooh, it's the cops," she says as she turns away, "it's like Oh! Here's the cops!" She said smiling and doing the Running Man toward the camera.

Officer Ennis was up late Monday night, knowing she would be on camera doing an interview with ABC2 Tuesday.

"He [Eric] had me up, I was saying you have to go to bed for school, and he was like you know, we gotta get this right," Officer Ennis said both her son and daughter had her practicing the dance over and over until they thought it was perfect.

"This morning, she was like, I love you. Be good," Officer Ennis said the kids feel like she's representing them.

Other police departments have gotten involved in the dance crazes that swept through the inter webs. New Zealand started the Running Man Challenge and the Detroit Police Department took it to another level, performing the dance with the entire force. Then challenging Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago to join in and using the dance as a promotion to join the DPD.