Caught driving drunk? Your punishment from police may include listening to Nickelback

No matter how many preventive tactics law enforcement uses – DUI checkpoints, marketing campaigns, promoting free ride offers, etc. – there are always drunk drivers on the road, especially around New Year’s Eve.

So one police department in Canada is trying something new: Making drunk drivers listen to a 15-year-old Nickelback album.

The Kensington Police Service on Prince Edward Island posted a photo of Nickelback’s album “Silver Side Up” to its Facebook page on Saturday, promising that those caught driving drunk would get the Christmas gift of widely disliked music on their way to jail.

“We figure if you are foolish enough to get behind the wheel after drinking then a little Chad Kroeger and the boys is the perfect gift for you,” the Facebook post says.

Kroeger, the lead singer of Nickelback, was ironically arrested for drunk driving a Lamborghini in 2006 and later convicted.

The unpopularity of Nickelback, originally from Canada, is part genuine dislike for the music, part ongoing joke. A Rolling Stone readers’ poll ranked Nickelback the second-worst band of the 90s, with Creed beating the band out for the top spot.

“What we were trying to do is put a little humor into a very serious matter of drinking and driving,” Const. Robb Hartlen, who authored the post, told CBC News. “What it does is it sparks that conversation, it pushes that idea that everybody knows with a little bit of humor.”

“Poor Nickelback. They take the brunt of a nation’s joke, and I’m sure they’re crying all the way to the bank,” he continued, though he said he does like a few of the band’s songs.

Facebook users generally loved the idea, with many sharing the post and others praising the department’s sense of humor and playing along.

“And here I thought Canada was a country that upholds human rights,” one user joked.

“Why would you put your own officers through the pain and suffering of someone else’s wrong doing?” another wrote. “At least give them some earplugs so they can make it to the station okay.”

So are police actually playing Nickelback to drunk drivers? Unfortunately, Hartlen found the photo of the album through Google and says he doesn’t actually have a copy on hand. Which makes sense, since getting a cassette tape to listen to music these days isn’t exactly practical.

But he told CBC the threat isn’t an empty one.

“I would have no problems at all getting hold of a copy of Nickelback and making that the musical play-along on the way in to chat with someone who’s been caught for drinking and driving,” he said.

This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Caught driving drunk? Your punishment from police may include listening to Nickelback."