Elon Musk’s SpaceX Company Town Is Getting a Police Department

Starbase, the company town created by Elon Musk's SpaceX in South Texas, is moving to establish its own police department.

During a special meeting on Tuesday, Starbase's city commission approved an ordinance that authorises the creation of a municipal police force, pending approval from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). According to local news outlet Valley Central, the department will be overseen by a police chief appointed by the city commission and is expected to employ eight officers. Officials said the department could become operational within a few months.

"There is a lot of assets here with the operations of SpaceX," Starbase city administrator Kent Myers told Valley Central. "Those assets need to be protected, and so the police department will play a critical part in protecting those assets."

It remains unclear whether Starbase has formally submitted its application to TCOLE. Neither the city nor the commission responded to requests for comment. Reports indicate that Starbase has retained security consulting firm Vision Quest Solutions to assist with setting up the department.

Starbase serves as the primary site where SpaceX builds and tests its Starship rocket prototypes. The city is relatively small, with a population of only a few hundred residents — most of whom are SpaceX employees or their family members. It is also geographically isolated. The nearest neighbouring city, Brownsville, is roughly 10 miles away, though the drive can take 45 minutes or more.

The planned police department marks the latest expansion of municipal services in Starbase since it was incorporated as a city last year. In October, a group of SpaceX employees living in the area launched a volunteer fire department. Around the same time, the city created a fire marshal role and assumed responsibility for building inspections and permitting.

Initially, Starbase sought to manage law enforcement by contracting with the Cameron County Sheriff's Office. The city entered into a $3.5 million, five-year agreement that was intended to provide two deputies patrolling the town at any given time, with a total of eight deputies assigned to the area.

Starbase also reached a separate agreement allowing it to use the county jail. Under that deal, the city agreed to pay $100 per inmate per day, along with reimbursement for additional costs such as medical care.

That arrangement, however, appears to have fallen short of expectations.

"We didn't have a lot of success in finding deputies through the county, so we decided to change direction," Myers told Valley Central. According to Sheriff Manuel Treviño, part of the challenge stemmed from the contract's lack of civil service protections, which made staffing the assignment more difficult.