The city of Irvine, California’s police department officially introduced its cringy new Tesla Cybertruck on Tuesday to the public in the most cringe way possible: a dorky video featuring theme music from “The Terminator,” a franchise that famously portrays cops in a poor light.
First spotted by Gizmodo, Irvine Police posted videos to Twitter and Facebook showcasing the truck. The minute-long video is just as sphincter clenching as you’d expect. It shows the Cybertruck rolling out to the Terminator theme music. For some reason there’s smoke for the Cybertruck to drive through before the truck stops and is joined by Irvine Police officers who awkwardly pose with the truck, complete with cyborg-like smiles. The video ends with custom thunder and lightning graphics created for the truck that reads “Irvine Police Cybertruck.” I guess we’re all supposed to go “hell yeah!” at that point.
Irvine Police are doubling down on the department’s reasoning for spending well over six figures on this electric pickup. In the video description, the department says the truck is for community engagement, specifically for officer support with the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.
The truck will support our Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and community outreach efforts. While the fully equipped vehicle won’t be used as a patrol car, it can respond to emergencies and assist the community when needed. For over three decades, our DARE officers have driven attention-grabbing and one-of-a-kind vehicles that never fail to turn heads and excite students.
Despite the department saying that this will be for community engagement, the truck has been divisive. Back in September, public records showed the department dropped over $150,000 on the electric truck. Things didn’t look much better when it was also revealed that the department attempted to keep the exact purchase amount secret. And not everyone is buying the department’s reasoning that the truck is for community engagement. Some experts believe the money spent on the Cybertruck and its law enforcement modifications should have been actually spent on, you know, the community.
The truck being a part of the DARE program doesn’t help things either. As Gizmodo pointed out, studies have shown the program does not work. It also doesn’t look as if Irvine PD actually got proper licensing to use “The Terminator” music in the video; the department mentioned in a statement to Gizmodo that “The video was used on our socials and music credit was given to the artist.” Between the public backlash, this cringe video and a possible copyright violation, it looks like this Cybertruck is already turning out to be less of a plus for the department and more of a headache.
This story originally appeared on Jalopnik, our sister site, on Wednesday, October 9.
