Does \u201cprotecting a commercial spaceport environment,\u201d along with \u201ccritical infrastructure and high-value technology assets,\u201d in a community \u201cshaped by aerospace activity, coastal ecology, and a pioneering spirit of exploration\u201d sound like your dream job? Well why not apply to be the \u201cfuture chief of police\u201d of Elon Musk\u2019s company town in Texas?<\/p>\n
As noted in a story last month on ValleyCentral.com<\/a>, which is affiliated with Brownsville, Texas area TV news station KGBT, the city of Starbase (yes, it\u2019s a real, incorporated city) approved an ordinance (yes, it has the authority to make laws) establishing a municipal police department. That will include a chief of police and eight officers, with that chief, according to ValleyCentral, elected by the city\u2019s commission.<\/p>\n To that end, apparently, the city just published a job listing<\/a> seeking applicants for a job titled \u201cPublic Safety Director \/ Future Chief of Police.\u201d The rather puzzling hybrid title may stem from the sheer speed at which the institutional trappings of a city are being assembled in Starbase. The city was incorporated about ten months ago, has a mayor<\/a>, and will be holding an election on May 2 of this year according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n ValleyCentral makes it sound like policing is a somewhat urgent matter in Starbase because a $3.5 million contract with the Cameron County Sheriff fell through. What were meant to be five-year positions as Starbase-based deputies weren\u2019t appealing to potential recruits. City Administrator Kent Myers told ValleyCentral \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a lot of success in finding deputies through the county, so we decided to change direction.\u201d<\/p>\n The job ad says this position will involve creating a \u201cfuture-ready workforce\u201d that will prioritize, \u201cIntegrating advanced technology and analytics into operations.\u201d Starbase\u2019s ideal applicant, the ad says, is a \u201cvisionary, ethical, and innovative leader with unquestioned integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n But that ideal candidate will also \u201cthrive in a startup-like environment.\u201d<\/p>\n As for what the sociological picture looks like in the area for someone considering being top cop there, the first thing to keep in mind is that it\u2019s a short drive from the Mexican border where, as of 2026, drug trafficking remains an issue of concern at the federal level<\/a>. And according to a report from 2023<\/a>, Cameron County was on the list of the 45 counties (out of 254 counties total) in Texas considered to be in poverty.<\/p>\n Closer to Starbase, there has been considerable agitation over SpaceX\u2019s control of an ostensibly public beach<\/a>, and a statue of Elon Musk in the area was vandalized last year<\/a>. So social unrest due to dislike of SpaceX and Elon Musk seem like potential areas of concern.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s presumptuous to try and paint a picture of the crime situation in Starbase because it\u2019s in many ways still just a construction site. The population was about 500\u00a0as of last year<\/a>, which is the approximate standing capacity of a Cheesecake Factory<\/a>. And the infrastructure to support a police department isn\u2019t even in place yet in Starbase. TechCrunch noticed some government filings last month showing that the city will likely soon have a courthouse.<\/a> Common sense-wise, it stands to reason that a jail will soon follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does \u201cprotecting a commercial spaceport environment,\u201d along with \u201ccritical infrastructure and high-value technology assets,\u201d in a community \u201cshaped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8892,2223,32265,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-199179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-elon-musk","tag-spacex","tag-starbase","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}