How Las Vegas police ended up with a fleet of free Tesla Cybertrucks

[ad_1] The Las Vegas police division rolled out a brand new fleet of tactical automobiles to metropolis streets final month: all Tesla Cybertrucks. The metal automobiles, wrapped in black-and-white vinyl, come decked out with warning lights and flashing sirens on the roof. They appear to be heftier, extra angular variations of a conventional police automotive. Las Vegas is the primary metropolis within the US to grant its officers entry to a battalion of the futuristic vehicles, which have turn into synonymous with the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the richest particular person on the earth.

“They symbolize one thing far greater than only a police automotive,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill mentioned at a current press convention showcasing the automobiles. “They symbolize innovation.”

Information of the ten electrical Cybertrucks first rippled throughout Las Vegas in February when McMahill posted renderings of the automobiles on X, saying “These are badass” and asserting his drive would quickly be driving them. One other police division submit on Instagram mentioned the fleet “was fully donated by an nameless supporter”.

Rumors swirled about who the donor might be. It got here at a time when Tesla’s gross sales had tanked and Musk was laying waste to the federal authorities’s payroll as the pinnacle of the so-called “division of presidency effectivity” (Doge). Based on police division emails acquired by the Guardian by way of a public information request, the donation had been within the works because the month after Donald Trump’s election win.

“As we’ve mentioned, the usage of these automobiles would symbolize a groundbreaking method to trendy policing,” Mike Gennaro, the chief of employees for the Las Vegas metropolitan police division, wrote in an e-mail to the donor on 1 December 2024.

The mysterious donor turned out to be Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the Silicon Valley enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz, and his spouse Felicia Horowitz. They got here ahead simply days after McMahill posted the renderings on social media. Horowitz’s agency, one of many best-known in Silicon Valley, invests in a wide range of tech corporations and spent $400m to assist Musk take over Twitter in 2022.

In response to the information, Musk replied to a submit about it on X with an emoji carrying sun shades.

Athar Haseebullah, govt director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, mentioned that police use of those Cybertrucks appeared like an endorsement of Musk.

A member of the Las Vegas police division inspects a Tesla Cybertruck, a part of the division’s fleet of automobiles, in Las Vegas on 28 October 2025. {Photograph}: Ty ONeil/AP “I acknowledge that LVMPD sees worth in having cool-looking automobiles round, and it initiatives an air of modernity and class. However the actuality is that for communities, that’s not what they’re asking for,” Haseebullah mentioned. “They’re asking to really feel safer. I don’t know {that a} Tesla Cybertruck makes anyone really feel any safer.”

Different cities across the US have additionally confronted blowback on the prospect of including Teslas to government-owned fleets. Baltimore had pledged to spend $5m on Tesla sedans for municipal staff in June 2024, however by March had backed off these plans. In King county, Washington, officers confronted backlash from residents for purchasing 120 Tesla automobiles for its municipal carpooling program. And in a handful of small cities in California, the place officers have been testing Tesla sedans for regulation enforcement work, division chiefs say the automobiles aren’t match for contemporary policing.

The Las Vegas police division, nonetheless, is optimistic. McMahill mentioned zero taxpayer {dollars} had been spent on the Cybertrucks as a result of they had been a donation.

The mysterious donors The Horowitzes dwell in Las Vegas and have been longtime supporters of town’s police division. Based on the emails acquired by the Guardian, their Cybertruck donation included 10 automobiles for patrolling and one “sting protector” for particular weapons and techniques (Swat). The donation, which is estimated at about $2.7m and was finalized in late January 2025, was funnelled by way of a regulation enforcement charity known as Behind the Blue.

“The morale of the cops can be by way of the roof when these present up at their substations,” Gennaro wrote to Horowitz, as they hammered out the donation logistics. “And we'll use them as a software to maintain morale excessive and cops productive.”

The police division waited for the Cybertrucks for about 10 months as they underwent upgrades by an organization known as UpFit, primarily based in Hawthorne, California, which focuses on retrofitting Teslas for police work. The patrol automobiles include barrier shields, ladders, radios and different tactical gear, in accordance with the police division. The improve specifics and pricing had been redacted in public information.

Based on inside emails, the Swat automobile can be utilized in conditions that embrace “barricaded suspects and hostage incidents”.

Las Vegas police requested UpFit to take away Tesla’s “beast” mode on all 11 automobiles. Beast mode is a setting that Tesla says makes a Cybertruck speed up from zero to 60mph in 2.6 seconds and might attain a prime pace of 130mph.

Horowitz has made a number of tech-centric donations to the Las Vegas police division over the previous couple of years, totalling roughly $8m. These embrace license plate readers from the corporate Flock, drones from Skydio and a synthetic intelligence software that helps with 911 calls from the corporate Prepared911. These three merchandise had been created by companies inside Andreessen Horowitz’s funding portfolio, in accordance with a report by TechCrunch. The agency just isn't an investor in Tesla.

In response to TechCrunch’s reporting, Horowitz wrote a blogpost emphasizing the necessity for public security and quoted the rapper Nas, saying: “You'll be able to hate me now, however I gained’t cease now.”

Horowitz and Tesla didn't reply to the Guardian’s requests for remark.

The Cybertruck’s woes Musk has touted the Cybertruck’s chrome steel physique as being “apocalypse-proof” with the power to resist bullets and arrows. Throughout his unveiling of the automobile in 2019, he had one in all his staffers throw a metallic ball on the automotive’s window to point out off what he mentioned was “a truck that’s actually powerful, not faux powerful”. The window shattered.

Cybertrucks have been on public roads for 2 years now. They've devoted followers, however have seen dwindling gross sales and are banned from the European market over pedestrian issues of safety. Within the third quarter of this yr, Tesla offered simply 5,385 Cybertrucks – down 63% from the identical time final yr. For comparability, the Ford F-150, an analogous outsized electrical truck, noticed gross sales rise by practically 40% within the third quarter.

A few of the lackluster gross sales come from opposition to Musk throughout his time at Doge. “Tesla Takedown” protests final winter had been aimed toward getting folks to promote their automobiles and a good quantity of vitriol and violence was directed particularly towards Cybertrucks. Vandals across the nation spray-painted swastikas on the pickup vehicles, and, in Seattle, somebody set 4 of the automobiles on hearth, engulfing them in flames.

Tesla Cybertrucks owned by the Las Vegas metro police division on show in Las Vegas on 28 October 2025. {Photograph}: Ty ONeil/AP Cybertrucks have additionally had a staggering variety of recollects over the past two years. Among the many 10 recollects, points included facet panelling that’s liable to flying off whereas driving, too shiny entrance lights and a fuel pedal that accelerates uncontrollably. The newest recall, issued on 30 October, was as a result of truck’s mild bar being inclined to falling off and inflicting a street hazard to different automobiles.

“Why didn’t they decide some other sort of auto?” Haseebullah from the ACLU of Nevada requested. “Why would a Tesla be extra environment friendly for police to make the most of than a Ford?”

The Las Vegas police division mentioned it handled these recollects earlier than deploying its Cybertrucks on patrol final month. For Sheriff McMahill, utilizing these vehicles is about having “probably the most technologically superior police division on the planet”.

“These vehicles are excessive efficiency they usually’re constructed powerful,” McMahill mentioned, echoing Ford’s “Constructed powerful” tagline. “Cops are going to look kinda cool in them too.”