- Las Vegas police are now driving Tesla Cybertrucks
- The 10 electric vehicles were gifted by tech entrepreneur Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia
Move over Crown Victoria, there’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to cruising the streets of Las Vegas.
On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department became just the second police force in the United States to add a Tesla Cybertruck to its lineup. Unlike the Greenfield PD in California, however, Metro’s inclusion of the electric utility truck counts more than just one. Ten, in fact.
Welcome to the future of policing,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said, adding that it’s his goal to make the LVMPD among “the most technically advanced police department on the planet.”
The LVMPD has added 10 Tesla Cybertrucks for patrol use across the Las Vegas Valley. The vehicles are specially equipped to carry tactical tools to assist in the LVMPD’s response to critical calls, such as barricades and shootings. Each LVMPD command post is being allocated a Cybertruck.
“This is the next evolution in keeping our community safer than it’s ever been,” McMahill added. “They look a little bit different than the patrol cars we have out there, but they represent something far bigger than just a police car. They represent innovation, sustainability, and they represent our continued commitment to serve this community with the best tools we have available.”
Tech Epicenter
Las Vegas, of course, is no longer only about casinos and lavish resorts. Today, Southern Nevada is an emerging tech hub thanks to its business-friendly environment and strategic location.
The federal government has designated the entire State of Nevada as a “tech hub” with a focus on developing lithium lifecycle clusters for batteries and electric vehicles. Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, located east of Reno, employs 12K people and has an indoor floor area of 5.4 million square feet.
McMahill explained that bringing on Cybertrucks to Metro’s patrol came at no cost to taxpayers. Billionaire Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia, donated the 10 Tesla Cybertrucks. After their specialized outfitting, the Cybertrucks are estimated to be worth between $8 million and $9 million.
Horowitz is a tech entrepreneur who co-founded and later sold Opsware to Hewlett-Packard in 2007 for $1.65 billion.
The Las Vegas police Cybertrucks were outfitted by Unplugged Performance and Upfit, a California-based company that specializes in customizing Tesla vehicles for law enforcement purposes. Las Vegas-based Ink and Architectural Expo handled the LVMPD Cybertruck wraps.
Gas Powered Still Favored, for Now
McMahill said that while the Cybertrucks are electric, gas-powered police cruisers are still favored, at least for now.
We work 10-hour shifts at a minimum. They’re only getting six or seven hours of use out of them,” McMahill said. “As battery life increases and the effectiveness of these vehicles expands in the range, we’ll probably see a lot of that as we continue to go forward.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is the seventh-largest police department in the United States, with approximately 3,400 full-time officers. Only New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, and DC’s police departments are larger.
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