Irvine torches tax dollars on pointless toy

In its recent budget document , Irvine's city manager pointed to the "challenge of rising costs due to inflation and cost of services" and emphasized the importance of remaining "vigilant in enhancing and maintaining the high quality of services for the community." Like many California cities, Irvine has in recent years struggled with budget deficits and relied on federal pandemic funding to make ends meet. But the city apparently has plenty of money for pointless toys.

In May, the Irvine Police Department spent $132,000 for a Tesla Cybertruck – one of those polarizing new electric pickups that, depending on one's tastes, is the coolest thing since the DeLorean DMC-12 or a problem-plagued rolling dumpster. If that weren't costly enough, Irvine police then spent $21,000 adding flashing lights, spotlights, large tacky graphics, fancy paint and – for some unknown reason given the truck's purpose – a rifle mount.

Did we mention that this tech-bro extravagance won't be used for any actual police work? Instead, it's a public-relations tool that will be used to capture the gaze of children unfortunate enough to attend the department's DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) events at schools. The expenditure is so absurd it has attracted the scrutiny of local watchdogs , who can't understand such a strange use of taxpayer dollars during uncertain economic times.

It also has garnered national media attention. A recent in The Washington Post quoted a departmental spokesperson: "It's an opportunity for [people] to say, 'Oh, man, that's a Cybertruck. I've never seen one of those. I want to talk to that officer.'" Never mind that one can't go anywhere in Southern California without seeing these trucks.