“I’m not ready to put an officer in a Tesla.”
A little over a year on the market, drivers have been finding all kinds of uses for Cybertrucks. They’ve turned out to be handy paperweights, and they make lovely snowman, as well as a nice place to store your eggs.
One anonymous patron is hoping they make great police cruisers as well, after the Las Vegas Metro Police Department announced it acquired ten of the infamous EVs via a generous donation. While the majority will be fitted for light patrol work, at least one will be fitted out as a SWAT vehicle, the LVMPD said.
For its part, the police department is confident the new fleet will go over well, with LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill calling them “badass.”
“The cop inside will be safe no matter what, it will stop bullets,“ McMahill boasted. “This is also a tremendous recruitment tool.”
McMahill’s faith in the EV to stop bullets is laudable, especially given the cybertruck windshield’s strange habit of shattering when wiped with a cloth, nevermind actual gunfire. Maybe he’s right to be confident — after seven recalls in just over a year, one would hope Tesla has worked out all the kinks.
The Vegas Sheriff’s attitude is a notable break from his fellow cops across the country, whose experiments using Teslas have failed spectacularly.
Nowhere has that been more apparent than Nevada’s western brother, California. Following governor Gavin Newsom’s statewide mandate to transition all California vehicles to zero-emission, a number of departments have deployed various Tesla models to their fleets. The results range from mild inconveniences to outright dysfunction.
In Menlo, California, police chief David Norris noted that Tesla’s are far from the “patrol cars of the future.”
A report on the use of the vehicles noted that officers liked the acceleration, steering, and speed of the EVs, but found significant issues as soon as the cruisers had to go offroad. Their size is also a cause of concern for gadget-laden first responders.
“The equipment overhangs the passenger seat making it nearly unusable,” the report reads. “In particular, the passenger seat space would not allow training officers to comfortably sit next to a trainee for a 12-hour shift, preventing field training for new officers. The rear seats provide very little room for anyone detained or transported in the back of the car.”
Meanwhile, Ukiah Police Chief Cedric Crook told SF Gate that “I’m not ready to put an officer in a Tesla.” Evidently, the rear seats are only big enough to fit one mirandized passenger at a time, and there were major concerns over charging, especially while transporting arrestees.
Ukiah’s Model 3s will instead serve as transport vehicles for administrative staff, after a lengthy six-month modification due to the lack of auto shops with knowledge of outfitting Teslas for emergency use.
A little farther north, police in Spokane, Washington found that outfitting Tesla Model Ys for duty was a mixed bag, as adding a laptop mount obscures the EV’s touchscreen dashboard. The vehicle’s distinctive design also foiled any rear-cabin modifications for transporting arrestees, while larger officers struggled with the Y’s lacking leg room.
Only time will tell whether Las Vegas will have any more luck with its shiny new Cybertrucks. If their performance in civilian hands is any indication, Vegas police might be in for a bumpy ride.
More on Cybertrucks: The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis