{"id":409538,"date":"2026-02-05T15:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409538\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T15:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:57:09","slug":"elon-musks-spacex-company-town-is-creating-its-own-police-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409538\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX company town is creating its own police squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n         Published on<br \/>\n            05\/02\/2026 &#8211; 11:05 GMT+1\n            <\/p>\n<p>Starbase, the South Texas company town created by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, is developing its own police squad. <\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s commission green-lighted the municipal police department during a meeting on Tuesday. However, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) still has to approve the plan. <\/p>\n<p>Starbase is a hub used by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/business\/2026\/02\/04\/spacex-hits-106tn-after-xai-merger-as-musk-consolidates-empire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a> to test its prototype Starship rocket and has only a few hundred residents, the majority being SpaceX employees and their families. As such, it is quite isolated, with the closest town, Brownsville, being around a 45-minute drive away. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of assets here with the operations of SpaceX. Those assets need to be protected, and so the police department will play a critical part in protecting those assets,\u201d TechCrunch cited Kent Myers, the Starbase city administrator, as saying.<\/p>\n<p>This new force will be run by a chief of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2025\/03\/30\/police-wages-in-europe-which-countries-pay-officers-the-highest-and-lowest-salaries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">police<\/a>, who will be elected by Starbase\u2019s commission. Around eight officers are expected to be hired by the squad, which could be operational in just a few months. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2026\/02\/04\/from-first-gen-smartphones-to-cybersecurity-blackberry-ceo-on-the-companys-reinvention\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Security<\/a> consulting company Vision Quest Solutions has also reportedly been hired by Starbase to help set up this new squad. <\/p>\n<p>However, it is unknown whether TCOLE has received Starbase\u2019s application regarding the department yet. <\/p>\n<p>Euronews Next has contacted Starbase for comment. <\/p>\n<p>A force born out of necessity<\/p>\n<p>Previously, Starbase had attempted to work with the Cameron County sheriff\u2019s office for its law enforcement needs, including agreeing on a five-year contract worth $3.5 million (\u20ac2.9 million). <\/p>\n<p>Under the contract, two deputies would patrol the city at a time, with eight deputies available in total. <\/p>\n<p>The company town had also reached a deal with the sheriff\u2019s office to use the county\u2019s prison, with Starbase agreeing to pay $100 (\u20ac84) per day per inmate, along with extra expenses such as medical care. <\/p>\n<p>However, the deal fell through, mainly due to a lack of civil service protections in the contract. <\/p>\n<p>In addition to this possible police force, Starbase also has a volunteer fire department, run by SpaceX employees. This department has a fire marshal position and carries out its own permitting and building inspection functions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 05\/02\/2026 &#8211; 11:05 GMT+1 Starbase, the South Texas company town created by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[995,288,152168,90,416,412,86,3329,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-409538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-police","tag-police-deparment","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}