The town of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is getting a police department

Starbase, the industrial city that Elon Musk’s SpaceX built in South Texas, is building its own police force.

The city committee approved a the law At a special meeting on Tuesday that will establish a municipal police department, subject to approval by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). The agency will be managed by a police chief appointed by the city council, and is expected to employ eight police officers, according to local reports. Valley Central. It may resume in a few months.

“There’s a lot of real estate here with the way SpaceX is operating,” Starbase City Manager Kent Myers told the site. “These items need to be protected, so the police department will play a major role in protecting the items.”

It is unclear whether Starbase has yet submitted its application to TCOL. The city and TCOL did not respond to requests for comment. Starbase reportedly hired security firm Vision Quest Solutions to build the department.

Starbase is where SpaceX builds and tests its Starship rocket. The city is small – currently it has only a few hundred people, most of whom are SpaceX employees (or family members of the employees). But it is very far from the place. The closest town is Brownsville, which is 10 miles away, although the drive can take 45 minutes or more.

The police department would be a recent addition to the public services that have been available at Starbase since its incorporation like the city last year. In October, a small number of SpaceX employees live at Starbase started a volunteer fire department. The city also created a fire station and reviewed the building and permits at the same time.

Starbase initially tried to deal with law enforcement within its city limits by partnering with the Cameron County sheriff’s office. The city signed a $3.5 million, five-year contract with the sheriff’s office having to see two deputies patrolling the city at the same time, with eight deputies assigned to the detail.

Starbase also contracted last year with the sheriff’s office to operate the county jail. The company town agreed to pay each inmate $100 a day and cover any other expenses, such as medical care.

Apparently the deal didn’t go well, though.

“We haven’t been very successful in finding a minister in the district, so we decided to change our strategy,” Myers told Valley Central. This appears to have been the result of an unsafe contract, Sheriff Manuel Treviño told reporters.