Although Irvine police said they won’t use the Cybertruck as a patrol car, the police department didn’t rule out other uses should the need arise.
A police department in Southern California says it has the country’s first Tesla Cybertruck for police use, but the unusual vehicle won’t see much action.
The Irvine Police Department unveiled the purchase Tuesday in a splashy video on social media, including Facebook and X. The price tag: $153,175.03, including the installation of emergency equipment.
The police department said its Cybertruck would have a limited role: jazzing up anti-drug events at schools through the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
I like how they’re trying to encourage people to say no to drugs with an expensive vehicle from a company headed by a notorious drug abuser.
Say no to drugs or you will approve of shit like this “car”
The only way that makes any sense.
What better anti-drug messaging than a vehicle designed by a ketamine fuelled manchild.
Maybe just… Defunding the police just a liiiiitle bit wouldn’t be so bad…
Im joking btw dont hurt me or argue at me ;-;
Because this viewpoint exists I died to crime.
Thanks a lot
Wait but thats illegal
You know you’re on Lemmy, right?
Hahah, people don’t see it right away. Here you’ll get trashed for not saying it with your chest. Honestly, I’m happier than a pig in a donut shop
We can recognize that lowering their funding won’t get rid of their unnecessary expenses
They do need to defund them if they are paying for this shit.
Police also shouldn’t be out for 5150s but here we are. At least suicide by cop is easy
Huh. I came specifically to say “Defund. Them.”
I remember in the late 90s the cops in my large city caught flack for buying SUVs in a city with no offroading and zero hills. They gave the same reason. Now all the squad cars are SUVs.
Are car manufacturers actually making cars anymore? Seems they all shifted to SUVs.
I wonder how much education could have been done with $150 000. Like imagine if you use that money to actually teach people about responsible drug use.
Or just early childhood general education and intervention. You could hire 2-3 teachers with that.
Nothing would drive me to drugs faster.
Unless you need to go through sand to get to the drugs, or it’s raining.
Or your deal is in a carwash…or you have to off road. Ors it’s too cold…
Shoulda used that money for a one-off Anti School Drug Event.
Could’ve used the money for supplies and lunches for the kids.
I’m more surprised that D.A.R.E. still exists.
Even when I was a kid in the 90s, it was largely known then it was a massive failure.
By highschool, most of the kids doing drugs renamed it Drugs Are Really Expensive. Probably didn’t help that the police officer assigned to the high school was known amongst the students to be selling drugs to the students.
Screw Elon. Stop spending tax money to support his endeavors.
Other uses like what…?
Just say no!
Ha ha!
They just make themselves look like such dweebs with that.
Did it work though? Would be fine for an investment if it actually worked…
DARE is still happening places?
That shit causes insane levels of damage…
We had it in elementary schools and they said everything would kill you and was equally bad. So when a few kids started smoking weed in middle school. We expected their lives to be over. A few years later they were fine so everyone started smoking, then kids quickly moved onto coke, opioids and pretty much everything else.
Because they lied about some stuff, most kids assumed they lied about everything.
The cybertruck is obviously fucked, but it’s insane anywhere in the country is still grasping to a program we know hasn’t worked for decades
It’s crazy how expensive it is too. At my HS, as an ASB rep got contacted by DARE reps once and they where oh its only $15k per classroom. It all made sense when I started to learn its always been a money grubbing grift. It never had a good reason to exist other then excuse to charge alot for busybwork.
Not just money.
Kids love cops, so cops love going to schools and having everyone treat them like super heroes
Until there’s a school shooter that is, then suddenly they’re stuck in the phonebooth trying to take their glasses off.
Copaganda
To make things worse, we’ve known they were ineffective for over 20 years
This is sadly the typical progression. People come to the conclusion that drugs aren’t really that big of a deal but then do too much of them. It’s sort of like people turning 21 and getting hammered. Better to help people do things safely and provide alternatives or treatment than to proclaim abstinence.
Our division does DARE with 4th graders still. Officers come in and spew that shit for a few weeks and kids get a bunch of swag and cupcakes for signing a pledge. I’m not a fan of any of it, but it’s above my pay grade.
@MicroWave “So remember, kids – drugs’ll make you do really weird stuff, like pay $153,000 for a Cybertruck.”
Geico won’t insure it. If others follow, then it’ll be illegal to drive in California, since insurance is mandatory.
Geico still very much insures Cybertrucks. The article you’re referencing was pure heresay and didn’t include any actual statement from Geico.
"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,” the department said on Facebook.
How many of those excited students were stopped from using drugs by these attention-grabbing one-of-a-kind vehicles? An exact number isn’t necessary, I’ll accept an educated approximation.
Also-
And she said the department needed a new D.A.R.E. vehicle anyway.
I may be showing my age here, but back when I was a kid, Officer Friendly used to come to my school and tell us how drugs did not make you cool in his regular old patrol car.
I drive a school bus and it’s depressing how excited elementary and middle-school kids get when they see a cybertruck. Shit, they still get excited when they see a tesla and those things are everywhere.
I used to work on a school bus and I get excited when I see a CyberTruck, too. Then I can look in the mirror and say, “you’re not the dumbest person I’ve seen today!” It’s a real ego boost.
I don’t doubt kids get excited over them since they’re marketed to people of that maturity level, but I doubt it would convince any of them to not use drugs if they were considering it.
They were usually seized assets which is awful but seems less so than spending over $150k on a vehicle that major insurers refuse to cover.
I don’t know the exact number, but I’m sure it’s less than zero.
…or $44 billion for Twitter…