LAS VEGAS– The nation’s largest fleet of police Tesla Cybertrucks is set to begin patrolling the streets of Las Vegas in November thanks to a donation from a U.S. tech billionaire, raising concerns about blurring public and private interests.
“Welcome to the future of policing,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a recent news conference, surrounded by Cybertrucks as drones flew overhead and a police helicopter circled overhead.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s fleet of 10 black and white Cybertrucks, equipped with flashing lights and sirens, are wrapped in the police department’s logo. Around 400 agents have been trained to drive the trucks that will use the public charging stations.
The all-electric vehicles come equipped with shotguns, shields and ladders as well as additional battery capacity to better meet the demands of a police department, McMahill said.
The donation sparked concerns from government oversight experts about private donors’ influence over public services and strengthening the Tesla brand. The department is the latest U.S. city to turn to Tesla models, even though Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has faced setbacks due to its work earlier in the year to advance the president’s policy agenda and shrink the size of the federal government.
McMahill noted the trucks will help keep officers safe because they are bulletproof, unlike Metro’s other patrol cars. Each Cybertruck is valued at between $80,000 and $115,000 and will be used to respond to calls such as barricades and shootouts in addition to regular patrols.
Cybertrucks also offer unique advantages such as a shorter turning radius, he said.
“They’re a little different than the patrol cars we have, but they represent something much bigger than just a police car,” the sheriff said. “They represent innovation. They represent sustainability and they represent our continued commitment to serving this community with the best tools we have, in a safe, efficient and responsible manner.”
The fleet comes amid a roller coaster year for Tesla which has faced several recalls.
In March, U.S. safety regulators recalled virtually all Cybertrucks on the road.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall, which affected more than 46,000 Cybertrucks, warned that an exterior panel that runs along the left and right sides of the windshield can become detached while driving, creating a dangerous road hazard for other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash. Tesla offered to replace the panels for free in notification letters sent in May.
In late October, Tesla announced another recall of more than 63,000 Cybertrucks in the United States because the front lights are too bright, which can distract other drivers and increase the risk of a collision.
Las Vegas Officer Robert Wicks of the department’s public information office said all Tesla recalls will have been addressed before the Cybertrucks patrol the streets. The March recall regarding panel issues was addressed before the department received the trucks, he said.
Federal regulators also opened a new investigation into Tesla’s self-driving feature after dozens of incidents in which cars ran red lights or drove on the wrong side of the road, sometimes crashing into other vehicles and causing injuries.
Cybertrucks modified for the Las Vegas police fleet do not have any autonomous driving functions.
Laura Martin, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action Fund, said the hulking trucks with their sharp angles “seem to be designed for intimidation, not safety.”
“It appears that the arrival of the Cybertrucks on the streets of Clark County shows that Sheriff McMahill is prioritizing corporate giveaways and the militarization of the police over the real needs of the community,” she said.
The donation comes after President Donald Trump earlier this year purchased a new Tesla from the White House driveway and said he hoped its purchase would help the company as it struggled with sagging sales and falling stock prices.
Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said fleeting another Tesla model in Las Vegas “to patrol our communities really draws the next parallel there.”
Haseebullah also worries about the Cybertrucks’ surveillance capabilities, which the public may not be unaware of, and that the fleet could give Tesla access to police data.
Following the explosion of a Cybertruck outside Las Vegas’ Trump Tower earlier this year, Tesla was able to provide detailed data on the driver inside, including the driver’s movements leading up to the explosion.
Ed Obayashi, California’s special prosecutor and an expert on national and state police practices, said private donations to law enforcement are neither rare nor illegal unless a local or state law prohibits it.
In this case, the donation is physical equipment and the money cannot be diverted to anything else, Obayashi said. That said, he doesn’t think the trucks bring any particular benefit to the department.
“There won’t really be any distinct or notable benefits, so to speak, other than the fact that it’s a free vehicle and it saves taxpayers money to replace the equipment,” Obayashi said.
The Las Vegas fleet was a donation totaling about $2.7 million from Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, and his wife, Felicia Horowitz.
The couple, who live in Las Vegas, have made multiple donations to the department, including between $8 million and $9 million for Project Blue Sky, the department’s deployment of drones throughout the Valley. They also donated funds to purchase emergency call technology and license plate readers – products from companies in which Andreessen Horowitz invests.
Ben Horowitz, who has donated to both Democratic and Republican political campaigns, was among the investors who backed Elon Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter, now known as X.
His venture capital firm also hosted McMahill and Metro chief of staff Mike Gennaro on a podcast in November 2024.
Ben and Felicia Horowitz could not be reached for comment, but in a 2024 blog post, Ben Horowitz described their interest in donating to the department, emphasizing the importance of public safety and the difficulties public sectors have budgeting for technology.
McMahill said the couple wanted to make sure Las Vegas didn’t “become California when it comes to crime.”
