When Skydio, a younger maker of drones in San Mateo, California, despatched a buyer proposal in 2023 to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division, its chief of workers, Mike Gennaro, forwarded the e-mail to VC Ben Horowitz.
“Which deployment are you trying to do?” Horowitz wrote again.
“No matter you need, Ben,” Gennaro replied, based on emails seen by TechCrunch.
Horowitz then despatched cash to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division’s (LVMPD) police basis to buy Skydio drones for the division.
It was a win-win, seemingly. Skydio was capable of tout its relationship with the LVMPD, whereas the division obtained a brand new software to combat crime. In a weblog put up detailing the partnership, Skydio praised the LVMPD’s option to undertake its X10 drones as being “pushed by the formidable imaginative and prescient of creating Las Vegas the most secure group in America.”
They didn’t point out Horowitz, even if the VC’s relationship with the LVMPD runs deeper than simply funding the Skydio drones.
The enterprise capitalist has facilitated communication between the LVMPD and a minimum of six a16z portfolio corporations. TechCrunch discovered about this relationship after receiving over 100 emails between Horowitz and the division, in addition to inside police emails about his donations primarily between January 2023 and July 2024, in a public data request.
In whole, the investor has donated a minimum of $7.6 million to fund police division purchases over the previous few years, based on a put up he revealed on a16z’s weblog in mid-October after studying about TechCrunch’s receipt of the general public data. He and his spouse Felicia have additionally paid to develop and enhance the LVMPD’s health club, based on the emails and his put up.
Horowitz isn’t alone on this strategy to supporting police. Soliciting donations to police foundations to cowl the price of particular gear purchases is an more and more standard and controversial strategy taken by among the largest departments across the nation.
Specialists and advocates on police accountability and surveillance advised TechCrunch that police foundations bypass the everyday procurement course of that may embody public conferences, a city-approved finances, and a possible bidding interval to offer opponents an opportunity.
“It’s horrifying from a great authorities perspective, from a nonprofit [and] ethics perspective, and simply actually has change into such a serious a part of how novel police applied sciences are marketed and marketed,” Albert Fox Cahn, founder and govt director of the Surveillance Know-how Oversight Mission, mentioned in an interview.
Fox Cahn and others additionally mentioned donations can arrange corporations for ongoing contracts the place taxpayers foot the invoice. They usually say it might tilt the enjoying discipline. In Skydio’s case, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division owned merchandise from a minimum of three different drone corporations earlier than Horowitz’s donation, a previous public data request revealed.
Horowitz argued in his put up that the general public sector usually has “bother budgeting” for brand new strategic expertise, so “by donating the expertise, I’m able to give LVMPD a operating begin.”
His strategy was praised by David Ulevitch, a normal companion at a16z, which backed Skydio. “What @bhorowitz and Felicia have accomplished in Vegas is a masterclass in philanthropy and affect,” Ulevitch wrote. “I hope it catches on in cities throughout America as a mannequin to deliver nice expertise to public security and bootstrap the method.”
TechCrunch requested Horowitz for an interview and despatched a listing of questions for this story, however he didn’t reply. Andreessen Horowitz spokesperson Grace Ellis declined to reply the questions, and mentioned there was “nothing extra for Ben to share past his weblog put up.” An unnamed consultant of the LVMPD’s public data workplace mentioned the division “is grateful to the personal residents who present funding for numerous tasks all through the division,” and declined to reply additional questions.
Paying for Prepared911, Flock Security and extra
For Horowitz’s spouse Felicia, California in 2020 was starting to look an excessive amount of like her previous. The 2 had lived within the prosperous Bay Space city of Atherton, California, for years. However Felicia had grown up exterior of Los Angeles, in Compton and Carson, California, the place she “noticed lots of her associates murdered,” Horowitz mentioned in his weblog put up.
Between Prop. 47, a 2014 California coverage that reclassified some felonies as misdemeanors, and politicians’ short-lived pledges to slash police budgets, Felicia felt she was watching her dwelling state deteriorate in actual time. “The brand new insurance policies — defund the police, don’t prosecute crime — are destroying the communities the place I grew up,” she was quoted saying in The Wall Avenue Journal. “If you wish to genocide black folks, the California insurance policies are an awesome blueprint.”
Felicia needed out of California and Horowitz was intrigued by Las Vegas. The town, he advised a Substack publication, promised “the Raiders, superb eating places, and world class leisure.”
Horowitz bought his Las Vegas residence, and his enterprise companion, Marc Andreessen, reportedly purchased a $36 million vacant plot 9 minutes down the highway. By early 2023, the emails present Horowitz had begun making private options about merchandise to the police division and was quickly writing checks. The couple donated $800,000 for brand new pc terminals and $120,000 for the health club, tossing in cash for brand new ice and cappuccino machines, he wrote in his put up.
He additionally began connecting Vegas police with a16z portfolio corporations. Along with Skydio, he donated $400,000 for the police division to amass expertise from Ready, an a16z firm that makes use of AI to assist with 911 calls, and an unspecified quantity for surveillance cameras from Flock Security, one other a16z firm. Horowitz additionally arrange introductions for safe communications startup Kodex, and Earnin’, which helps staff entry their pay earlier than payday, the emails present.
The LVMPD didn’t simply blindly settle for his donated expertise, although, based on the emails.
Horowitz advised Gennaro in an August 2023 e mail that he would make a donation for the division to amass expertise from Toka, an a16z-backed cybersecurity firm. However police management had issues. The startup was sluggish to offer pricing data and there have been questions on whether or not Toka’s expertise would work properly with a few of LVMPD’s cameras, based on the emails.
LVMPD management needed their inside enterprise and expertise governance board to evaluate the tech earlier than even receiving a Toka demo and warned there is perhaps a “prolonged” clearance approval course of.
Whereas it isn’t clear why, a deal was by no means labored out: A spokesperson for Toka advised TechCrunch that LVMPD “has by no means been a shopper or consumer of our merchandise.”
How Horowitz guided the Skydio deal
The Skydio deal wasn’t simple both. Horowitz had donated the cash for the LVMPD to purchase Skydio drones earlier than 2023, based on emails considered by TechCrunch. Beforehand, the police drive owned a handful of X2 Skydio drones, issued from 2020 to 2022, in addition to drones from corporations Autel, Brinc, and Skyfront, based on a earlier public data request.
In a 2023 e mail to chief of workers Gennaro, Brad Cupp, then-Las Vegas police sergeant, mirrored on the X2 Skydio drones. He wrote that they confirmed a “super quantity of promise,” however “fell wanting what we wanted operationally.”
In the identical e mail, Cupp wrote that the Skydio staff had listened to LVMPD’s suggestions, creating a brand new drone that “has the potential to really be a sport changer,” he wrote. “I’m hoping it is possible for you to to help upgrading all or a part of our fleet of Skydios.”
Gennaro forwarded the message to Horowitz, asking for assist. Just a few months later, Skydio formally introduced their new drone, the X10, and despatched over a proposal to LVMPD for drones and drone docks — a touchdown pad for drones stationed all through the town — in hopes that Horowitz would donate the gear to the police drive.
This potential deal took on a newfound significance after the corporate stopped promoting shopper drones that 12 months, betting its future on authorities, protection, and legislation enforcement. This meant all of their stock must meet the next customary: police drones often want longer battery lives and higher cameras, in addition to further expertise like thermal sensors.
It was an costly guess. Based on a 2024 pitch deck ready by Skydio investor Linse Capital that was considered by TechCrunch, the drone firm forecasted that it might burn by way of a minimum of $238 million by 2029, based mostly on elements like elevated manufacturing and growth into new industries and geographies. Linse Capital was extra pessimistic about Skydio’s wants, based on the deck. It forecasted Skydio might plow by way of a minimum of $348 million within the subsequent 5 years on its approach to profitability. A Skydio consultant mentioned that these figures usually are not in any Skydio pitch decks and that the agency can not validate them. Linse Capital declined to remark.
Horowitz, nonetheless, expressed shock on the massive scope of Skydio’s proposal to the LVMPD, particularly its suggestion to place docks on faculties, based on the emails.
“I assumed that we simply needed this for the 11 neighborhoods,” Horowitz emailed Gennaro, the “we” referring to the police division and himself, because the one footing the invoice. “They bid the colleges too. Is that what we requested for?”
Gennaro defined that extra drones have been essential in higher-crime neighborhoods, although a lot of the e-mail was redacted, together with his response to placing docks on faculties. Gennaro ended the e-mail by deferring to his donor’s judgment.
“We will regulate nonetheless you see match,” he wrote. An unnamed consultant of the LVMPD’s public data workplace mentioned that no drone docks have at the moment been put in in LVMPD’s jurisdiction.
Three months later, when Horowitz pitched Gennaro on one other a16z portfolio firm, Kodex, he included a caveat: “If it’s a good suggestion, I’m pleased to assist, however let’s not let the corporate know that,” Horowitz emailed. “We don’t want one other Skyd.io proposal lol.”
Stacy Wang, Kodex’s head of promoting, mentioned the corporate had no data of Horowitz funding the LVMPD’s acquisition of a16z portfolio corporations’ merchandise. She advised TechCrunch that Kodex is “free to make use of” for all legislation enforcement companies.
Horowitz’s elevated proximity to the LVMPD has had different ripple results for the businesses he’s invested in. Across the similar time that Skydio publicized its partnership with the LVMPD, Sergeant Cupp, who had evangelized the corporate’s drones internally, left the division for a brand new gig, based on his LinkedIn profile: Program supervisor at Skydio.
“You will get caught”
Andreessen Horowitz held its 2023 LP Summit — an occasion for the individuals who spend money on the agency’s funds — in Las Vegas. The town’s sheriff, Kevin McMahill, donning his police uniform, sat onstage between Flock Security founder Garrett Langley and a16z’s Ulevitch. McMahill couldn’t maintain again his glee as he spoke about utilizing a16z-backed applied sciences.
“Each piece of that expertise is the equal of three law enforcement officials,” he mentioned of Flock’s merchandise, including: “Unhealthy guys know that whenever you come to Las Vegas, due to our skills — expertise being on the forefront of it — you will get caught.”
McMahill additionally touted LVMPD’s dedication to transparency throughout the speak. However he didn’t point out the opaque software the division used to amass these applied sciences: police foundations.
These foundations are sometimes arrange as tax-exempt nonprofits, and provides personal residents and companies a approach to donate cash that can be utilized to purchase issues for police departments. Their use has exploded lately, with police foundations in main cities like New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Atlanta producing thousands and thousands of {dollars} in annual income.
Evan Feeney, senior director of campaigns and organizing at Colour Of Change, a nonprofit civil rights advocacy group that has revealed analysis on police foundations, known as them a “authorized loophole” in an interview with TechCrunch. “Billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to purchase entry and affect with legislation enforcement,” he mentioned.
Transparency, or lack of it, is a major concern advocates like Feeney have with using police foundations.
To wit, Horowitz used his private basis to donate $2 million to the Las Vegas police basis in 2023. However his basis’s tax submitting vaguely described the “objective” of the donation as “help of police.”
The Las Vegas police basis, in the meantime, doesn’t publish a full rundown of its donors. And whereas it maintains a web site that lists among the packages it funds, it doesn’t point out the a16z corporations, nor does it say how a lot cash goes to anybody effort.
What little they do disclose lags behind the real-world deployment. The newest public filings for both basis solely cowl exercise by way of as late as June 2023.
“Welcome to the great, dystopian land of Police Foundations,” Fox Cahn, the surveillance advocate, mentioned.
Fox Cahn added that, usually, the donations can arrange corporations for profitable ongoing contracts with the police drive, sidestepping opponents. After an preliminary donation, “they will then attempt to each promote the [police] on a follow-up contract but in addition then use the truth that [police] are deploying a expertise for promoting,” he mentioned.
“It turns into actually simply unimaginable for voters — for the general public – to carry folks accountable,” he mentioned.
Horowitz has justified his involvement with the LVMPD by pointing to dropping crime charges within the metropolis — which he says is going on thanks, partially, to his donations. In his put up, he claimed that 911 calls are being answered sooner and that, because of Flock Security, 17% extra suspects are being arrested.
However Horowitz didn’t say within the put up the place he obtained these statistics, and he declined to reply when TechCrunch requested. The LVMPD referred TechCrunch to its public crime statistics, which don’t line up with Horowitz’s figures.
Sheriff McMahill is a believer. On the LP Summit, he recalled a taking pictures the place all they knew was there have been two automobiles with a number of weapons firing. The case appeared hopeless till he used Flock Security expertise, which incorporates gunshot detection and license plate recognition software program, which was capable of give them extra data on the scene and assist them to catch the shooters.
“This expertise is altering the sport,” McMahill declared to the gang of a16z buyers. “We’re going to get to a spot in some unspecified time in the future the place it turns into unimaginable to commit a criminal offense.”
