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SALINA, Sevier County — If his wife hadn't been running late, Salina Police Chief Eric Pratt might not have had the opportunity to pull an epic April Fools' Day prank that's gone viral.
"I get off work the same time as my wife and my wife was running late and it was April Fools' and I have a half hour to kill. I said 'You know what? I'm just going to do it.' "
The end result was a video of a traffic stop captured on Pratt's body camera that was posted on the Salina Police Department's Facebook page. The video has been viewed more than 1.6 million times since Friday.
With 30 minutes to kill, Pratt swung by his house and picked up his cat Froo Froo, to "assist" with a traffic stop. As opportunity would have it, a car he clocked traveling 91 mph in an 80 mph zone sped by, which enabled him to put “Officer Froo Froo” to work.
A seasoned K-9 officer, Pratt calmly explained police protocol to the unsuspecting occupants of the SUV. He requested a driver license and then asked the driver and passengers to explain the source of an odor emanating from their car, which they were unable to do.
"I'm with the feline unit, the Salina Police Department's Feline Unit and I do have my feline partner with me,” Pratt said on the video.
"So what I'm going to do, I'm going to deploy my cat around the outside of your vehicle. If the cat indicates the odor of a controlled substance, we're going to from there, OK? Does that make sense to you?"
Pratt further explained if his feline partner meowed three times in a row, "that's a positive indication, OK?" Pratt returned to his car to retrieve Officer Froo Froo, who is an "awesome" mouser and farm cat but not trained to detect drugs, Pratt said in an interview Saturday.
But the foursome in the SUV, unaware they were on the receiving end of an April Fools' Day prank, fully cooperated, even volunteering that one of the passengers had prescription medication. Pratt explained that the feline was only certified to indicate to the odors of marijuana, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine."
Continuing with the ruse, Pratt walked around the vehicle holding Officer Froo Froo, at one point noting that the cat appeared to want to jump into the vehicle with a woman sitting in the back seat.
After circling the SUV, Pratt finally fessed up. "You guys, I can't keep playing with you. This is an April Fools' joke," he said, eliciting a roar of laughter from the good-natured occupants of the vehicle.
Pratt, who was in Emery County for his child’s sports competition Saturday, was unaware how many times the video had been viewed. "Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe that.”
Pratt said his intentions were two-fold: fostering positive relationships with the public through humor and driving more traffic to the police department’s Facebook page so area residents become more accustomed to using it.
Plus, he’s always wanted to pull such a gag.
Through the years of "running canines, I've seen different dogs from different agencies all over the country. I just always thought it would be hilarious if there was a cat that could do the same thing," Pratt said.
Fortunately, the people he pulled over were good sports.
SCPD "Feline Unit" April Fool's PrankBefore anyone gets too carried away (there's always a few), no tax payer dollars were spent in relation to this video. The few minutes of fuel will be paid for by me, I'm a salaried employee and this is on my own time, and last but not least, my sweet cat Froo Froo was not injured during this incident. The stop was legitimate (speeding), and my decision to give a warning was legitimate (I regularly warn for 11 over, which is what the stop was for). Smile people, it's April Fool's Day!
Posted by Salina City Police on Friday, April 1, 2016
“It shows what good people they are. Instead of just blatantly telling me I'm wrong or I'm lying, like a lot of people would assume the worst of a cop, these were such good people, they couldn't think of any possibility of what might be wrong. Those are good people, you can tell,” he said.
But on any traffic stop, officers need to be on guard, Pratt said, noting he was carefully assessing the situation from the moment he stepped out of his SUV. But the party of four was respectful and cooperative.
“I think they were such good people, they’re just very trusting. It’s good to see people have enough trust in law enforcement to not fight back too hard and let the cop do his job and has some faith everything is going to be fine,” Pratt said.
Pratt said he came up with the gag “on the fly” but he expected at some point that the people in the car would start to question what he was doing.
“I expected them to call me on it but they never did and I just ran out of material,” he said.
All well that ends well, particularly for the driver who received a warning but no citation.
Reaction to the prank has been largely positive but Pratt, who has been police chief for 2½ years, said he probably won’t repeat it.
“It seems like it’s been more positive than negative that was the goal, to do something positive,” Pratt said.
Salina Mayor Dustin Deaton agrees.
“He’ll actually receive a letter of commendation for it. Chief Pratt does a very good job of what he does. He’s very thorough as an investigator and he has a knack for communicating very well with people. I’m glad to see him doing something like this to build a positive relationship with the citizens, to close the gap between law enforcement and citizens,” Deaton said.
Contributing: Ashton Goodell
