(The Center Square) – Ten of Tesla’s bulletproof electric trucks will start patrolling Las Vegas streets in the coming days after a $2.7 million donation to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The Cybertruck donation came from Silicon Valley venture capitalist billionaires Ben and Felicia Horowitz. They are now Las Vegas residents and have previously donated drones and license plate readers to the police department.
The Cybertruck fleet is the largest in the U.S., continuing a recent trend of increased technology at the department, which serves the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated areas in Clark County.
“This is just the next evolution in keeping our community safer than it’s ever been, and we’re going to continue to drive that as we move forward,” said LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill at a news conference to showcase the new fleet earlier this week.
Each of the 10 Cybertrucks is valued between $80,000 and $115,000, according to Tesla. They join a growing unit of robotic members of the LVMPD – including drones, license plate readers, gunshot detection microphones and a robot dog.
Lauren Bonds, executive director for the National Police Accountability Project, said her organization is worried about the increased use of technology in policing.
“There’s judicial standards on use of force, searches and seizures and these kinds of standard, person-powered policing practices,” Bonds told The Center Square. “Those kinds of standards, those national benchmarks to make sure you’re not violating someone’s right – they don’t exist in a lot of these spaces, facial recognition technology being one.”
Bonds also said the donation of the Cybertrucks comes as part of a wider trend across the U.S.
“This does feel unique in terms of what was donated, but I’d say it’s becoming increasingly common for police to be privately funded instead of publicly by taxes,” said Bonds.
The 10 Cybertrucks will be used out on regular patrol and especially for “critical calls like barricades and shootings across the valley,” said McMahill. The cars are bulletproof, unlike the typical LVMPD patrol car.
The sheriff added that the self-driving feature in Cybertrucks will not be available to the LVMPD. The Cybertrucks will also hold some different equipment from a typical squad car.
“They’re going to be utilized to keep our cops safe – ladders, shields, additional ammunition, less lethal tools,” McMahill said.
The sheriff was also a guest on the podcast for the Cybertruck donors’ venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, in November 2024. The Center Square was unable to contact Horowitz.
“Not one taxpayer dollar went to buying these Cybertrucks,” said McMahill. “That was completely to the generosity of Ben and Felicia [Horowitz], who understand the importance of incorporating technology into policing.”
“These trucks are high performance, and they’re built tough – to handle everything from Fremont Street [in downtown Las Vegas] to Red Rock Canyon [National Conservation Area],” said McMahill. “And cops are going to look kind of cool in them too, right?”
McMahill noted the LVMPD will continue to be on the front lines of police technology. “As we continue to grow and become the most technologically advanced police department, we’re going to continue to lead the way here in Las Vegas.”
