It’s the fact that (the videos are) short and that it’s easily digestible content. And then (Hoskin and Price) are silly.”

Tiffany Ngalula, GPD’s public information officer

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By Steve Stockmar
Mail |
Twitter: @stevestockmar

Being social media stars gone viral, a couple of Glendale police motorcycle officers are bound to be recognized when they’re out and about.

Bryan Hoskin and Randy Price have perfected a method of educating the public with information, reaching a mass audience, and having fun as characters in the process, and all in a matter of seconds. Hoskin’s signature handlebar mustache helps, too.

With their regular TikTok videos pushing a million views each on the Glendale Police Department’s account — which has only 38,000-some followers — it’s getting hard for the two to keep hidden in plain sight. They get recognized at church, sure. They’re approached by fans at gas pumps when they stop to fill up their tanks.

But this is crazy.

A guy in custody?

“I came around the corner because I was helping out with something and the guy was standing there handcuffed and he yelled at me, ‘Hey I know you!’ I’m like ‘noooo way,’” Hoskin said during a quick chat Thursday at the Glendale Police Station, on 57th Drive in Historic Downtown Glendale, before the pair rolled out on patrol. “And he was like, ‘I saw you on TikTok. I like your stuff.’”

Their quick, weekly Monday messages about traffic safety issues have taken on a life of their own in a series dubbed #MotorMonday and #MustacheMotor. Their delivery is dry, if not addictive, as they pass along tips whether it be about pedestrian safety, crossing at a crosswalk, or seat belts. Basically whatever issues they come across on patrol that could use messaging reminders for their fans ... er, make that, residents.

“If you modify your exhaust to intentionally make it louder,” Hoskin says in a monotone in a nine-second video posted online April 11 that has amassed 917,000 views in 18 days, “it is a misdemeanor in the city of Glendale.”

Sounds basic, right, so why all the fuss? It’s the video and the delivery. It opens with Hoskin and Price, in full uniform standing by their parked bikes, perfectly syncing up a move to lower their sunshades in unison followed by the closer just seconds later — Hoskin giving the camera an all-too-cool finger point for emphasis.

Those are the moves and the chemistry the two clearly have that keep viewers coming back — and sharing the videos, lots and lots and lots of times.

“It’s his mustache, it’s his personality,” posited Tiffany Ngalula, GPD’s public information officer who was instrumental in building the #MotorMonday concept on the department’s social media platforms this past November. “It’s the fact that (the videos are) short and that it’s easily digestible content. And then (Hoskin and Price) are silly.”

Ngalula discovered that each of the department’s platforms had their own specific audience reach.

Twitter, she says, mostly engages with media. Facebook seems to reach other officers or departments or officer family members. Instagram tends to connect with other agencies, she explained, while TikTok algorithms push content to people on the street, so to speak, and residents.

It was that reach, she figured, that could find residents instantly.

“The sillier videos we do, they don’t get a lot of traction,” she said. “But the videos that are like seven seconds long that say ‘If you don’t wear your seatbelt, here’s how much the fine is,’ gets almost 3 million views.”

For this latest concept, though, she was mostly looking for officers who could “humanize the badge.”

“We just kind of spitball it sometimes,” Hoskin said of the viral #MotorMonday and #MustacheMotor posts that are uploaded to the department’s platforms each Monday. “We do sometimes have a plan, or something specific we feel we need to get a message out on.”

Price, who remains largely — and hysterically — silent in the videos, scoffs and smiles at any notion that the pair has elevated to a status as “viral influencers.”

“We’re more ‘viral educators,’” he says.

Social media wouldn’t be complete, of course, without trolls. The #MotorMonday guys have the occasional boo-birds prevalent on social media, but those trolls are unwittingly helping more than they’re hurting through the engagement, Ngalula says.

“We welcome the trolls on TikTok because it increases the algorithm,” she said.

As for Hoskin’s signature ’stache, technically it’s grown out longer than GPD policy allows its officers. But it, too, has become something of a sensation.

“Obviously it works. People are getting it,” he said. “We’re getting stopped all the time by just, whoever. ‘Hey wait, aren’t you...?’ Yeah, that’s us.”

Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment YourValley.net
@stevestockmar

sstockmar@iniusa.org

Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.

Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.

Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.

Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.

Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.