Starbase, the Texas city SpaceX built, took delivery of the first Tesla Cybertruck patrol vehicles for its police department on Wednesday.
Photographs published on Wednesday show a Cybertruck in black-and-white police livery being unloaded from a car carrier at the SpaceX site.
The vehicle carries the seal of the City of Starbase Police Department, the unit number 001, a roof light bar, a “Dial 9-1-1” decal and black off-road wheels in place of the standard items.
The images were posted by Amy Doehring, a photographer who covers the site, and carry a credit to M. Ornelas.
Tesla’s official Cybertruck account republished the photograph within hours under the caption “Starbase Police.”
The purchase extends to a municipal budget a commercial relationship both companies have already disclosed to regulators.
Tesla recognised $143.3 million in revenue from SpaceX during 2025, primarily from vehicle sales, according to its amended annual report.
SpaceX’s listing prospectus puts the Cybertruck component at $131 million, bought at manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Neither the city nor either company has disclosed the number of vehicles, the price paid, whether they were bought or leased, or which firm performed the police conversion.
The City
Starbase incorporated on May 3, 2025, when residents voted 212 to 6 in favour. Two hundred eighteen ballots were cast from 283 registered voters.
The city covers about 1.6 square miles of Cameron County on the Gulf coast, with a population the Texas Municipal League records as 550, most of them SpaceX employees and their families.
Starbase first attempted to contract law enforcement from Cameron County, signing a five-year, $3.5 million agreement for eight sheriff’s deputies, two on patrol at any time. The arrangement collapsed over concerns about civil service protections.
The Vehicles
The Cybertruck has been SpaceX’s standard support vehicle at Starbase since late 2025.
S&P Global Mobility registration data show SpaceX purchased 1,279 Cybertrucks in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, equal to 18% of all US Cybertruck registrations that quarter.
Musk’s companies bought a further 158 in January 2026 and 67 in February. Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill has said SpaceX and Tesla were replacing support fleets with the vehicle.
Against Tesla’s 20,237 Cybertruck sales in 2025, as counted by Kelley Blue Book, the $131 million disclosed in SpaceX’s prospectus implies roughly 1,183 to 1,813 vehicles at posted prices, or 6% to 9% of the model’s sales for the year.
Seth Goldstein, an equity strategist at Morningstar who covers Tesla, has noted that buying at manufacturer’s suggested retail price is unusual, since bulk purchasers typically receive a discount.
SpaceX disclosed no further Cybertruck purchases during the first half of 2026, having shifted its Tesla spending toward Megapack energy storage, on which it spent $295 million in the second quarter.
The Starbase order arrives after the corporate buying stopped, and it is drawn on public funds.
Tesla holds 18,990,195 SpaceX Class A shares, an interest of less than 1%, acquired when its $2 billion stake in xAI converted following that company’s merger into SpaceX.
Cybertrucks in Policing
Starbase is not the first force to buy one, but the fleets remain small.
Irvine, California became the first US department to add a Cybertruck in 2024, followed by South Pasadena.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police went furthest, taking ten armoured Cybertrucks valued at up to $115,000 each, funded by a $2.7 million donation from a technology billionaire, with roughly 400 officers trained to operate them.
Outside the US, Dubai Police added a Cybertruck to its tourist patrol fleet in 2024 alongside a Zeekr 001 and a Lotus Eletre, and later a Lucid Air.
Tesla vehicles have entered police service in Canada, France and Iceland, and Murphy, Texas deployed the first 2026 Model Y patrol cars in February.
