Andressen ovenge co-founder ben hrowitz has been donated a fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks to the las vegas metropolitan police, the department has confirmed to techcrunch.
The cybertruck fleet is the latest entry in a list of gifts hrowitz has given to the las vegas police – a relationship techcrunch Reveled in detail Late last year. The venture capitalist has donated more than $ 7 million to the department over the last few years.
Most of that money has been used to purchase technology from andreessen hrowitz portfolio companies. At Times, Techcrunch’s Reporting Showed, The Police Department Offred Hrowitz The Chance to Weigh in on how that technology was deployed.
Las vegas sherif kevin mcmaill first announced The cybertruck gift on February 25 at his annual “state of the department” address. He said without the speech that the trucks were provided by an anonymous donor and that they wouldn’t come out of the department’s budget. The las vegas review-bynal was the first to report that hrowitz and his wife felicia Were behind the gift,
“We want these things if the cops inside will be safe no matter. These stop bullets. They are also a trendous recruitment tool for us, “McMahill said in his speech.
McMahill said on stage that the department would receive 10 cybertrucks, although an unnamed department spoken speakesperson told techcrunch that horowitz donated 11 of that. Hrowitz did not respond to a request for comment.
Hrowitz’s Previous Gifts to the las vegas police was made by donating funds to the department’s nonprofit police foundation – a method of funding that Police Accountability Advocates Say Hurts Transparency and competition. In this case, thought, the department told the las vegas review-jornal that the donation was not made to the police foundation. The department did not respond to techcrunch’s question about how the donation was made.