Key Takeaways
- Greensboro Police joked that anyone arrested Tuesday night would have to listen to Taylor Swift’s new songs on repeat.
- The viral post drew nearly 31,000 likes and more than one million views before the department apologized for “stirring up the Taylor bots.”
- The joke referenced The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, a deluxe edition with four new songs that received mixed reactions.
A North Carolina police department is jokingly warning anyone who gets booked that a Taylor Swift-based punishment starts before the paperwork does.
"Those who are arrested tonight will be required to listen to Taylor Swift's new songs on repeat," wrote the Greensboro Police Department on their official X account on Tuesday (Sept. 29).
The department is referencing Swift’s newly-released The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, a deluxe edition of her 2025 album, which includes four new songs.
The post went up Tuesday afternoon and did not take long to travel. Within hours it had collected 30,987 likes, over 3,800 retweets, and crossed one million views.
“We apologize for stirring up the Taylor bots,” Greensboro PD said in a follow-up post. “Please continue to listen to The Life of a Showgirl.”
The tweets arrive not long after Swift’s latest offerings received mixed responses from critics and fans alike. Pitchfork gave Showgirl’s Encore edition a 4.0 rating, with journalist Shaad D’Souza saying Swift “has let the quality of her songwriting slide in favor of commercial domination.”
Rolling Stone’s Maya Georgi said the four-track set “has not only confused the story of Showgirl, she’s also muddled that of Taylor Swift™.”
Swift won three awards at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia” and Best Direction for “Opalite.” She was also the inaugural recipient of the Artist Director Honors.
