Police

 

PROBLEM

Las Vegas has an unacceptable, inexcusably high Crime Rate.

PROMISE

As Mayor, I promise to change that by fully funding our Police Department and establishing irreproachable Police Services.

Under my administration, Las Vegans will not feel unsafe or live in fear.

My administration will make certain all residents feel safe - morning, noon and night - at home, at work, at school, at play, on the streets of our communities, on our major roadways, and on public transportation.

We will foster and maintain mutual trust and cooperation between the police and the community. 

Our police will be transparent, respectful, fair, service oriented, and accountable.

The community will be encouraged to be alert, engaged, helpful, and respectful of one another as well as the police.

STAFFING

I will fully staff our Police Department. 

The Las Vegas Metro Police Department has more than 5,800 members. Slightly more than 2,900 are police officers of various ranks. 750 are corrections officers of various ranks.

The quality and quantity of staff matters. Therefore, we will achieve and maintain a ratio of two well trained officers per 1,000 citizens as prescribed by the Clark County ‘More Cops Fund' sales tax initiative.

METHODOLOGY

To reduce turnover and training costs, we will recruit career minded officers and civilian personnel and prioritize retention.

Not only will we adopt and codify forward thinking policing policies that are community friendly, we will implement the most effective proactive best practices; employ proven procedures; and maximize the use of the most advanced state-of-the-art equipment and technology.

Our Policing Techniques and Tactics will be designed to make adversarial interactions between community members and the police less frequent, less confrontational, less dangerous, less violent, and less deadly.

CALL TIMES

In 2018 it took 6.6 minutes for the average person calling the Las Vegas 9-1-1 Emergency line to speak with a live operator. In 2019, that rose to 6.8 minutes. (Accurate averages were difficult to obtain during the Covid emergency period.) My administration will reduce that average to under 3 minutes. 

We will use increased staff, advanced fiber-optics, better call routing, and Artificial Intelligence to allow more calls to be delivered to the correct emergency communications center (ECC) on the first try. These enhancements will speed up our 9-1-1 call pick-up time.

We will utilize the most advanced Artificial Intelligence to respond to 3-1-1 non emergency calls. Using that technology, we will seamlessly route callers to the appropriate person, who can resolve their issue.

DEPLOYMENT

Our high quality training, advanced technology, and updated methods of deployment will make certain the deployment and response time is the same across all 77 Las Vegas zip codes.

DIVERSITY

Diversity, by its very nature, makes everyone's job easier.

To ensure overall effectiveness, it is imperative that the Las Vegas Metro Police Department has the trust of all constituent groups. People feel better about interactions when there are representatives of the Police Department who live in their communities and who look like them.

Diversity is more than a matter of optics. From a visual perspective, diversity not only affirms familiarity, it confirms equal access and opportunity. These factors, combined, promote acceptance of authority and willingness to cooperate with the various representatives of the Police Department. 

Therefore, my secondary goal is to make certain that our Police services, throughout the Rank and File, the Command structure, and civilian staff, are diverse and fully representative of Las Vegas' - Young, Mature, Male, Female, Black, White, LatinX, Asian, from the North, South, East, and West sectors of our city.

HOLISTIC APPROACH

I understand that no city can police itself into a durable state of public safety. Public Safety becomes a lasting reality when the overwhelming majority of citizens desire civility, understand their value, are involved in the community, decide to become a part of the solution, exercise their right to vote, and cast their vote conscientiously.

My plan to curb crime and prevent violence in Las Vegas is holistic and rooted in self-respect, respect for others and community empowerment. It’s a multifaceted approach that includes the creation of self perpetuating private sector jobs, Improved mental health services, educational intensive care, balanced community development, balanced economic development, as well as increased community input, authority and involvement in the process.

Our goal is to fully actualize a police department that is proactive rather than reactionary.

We will recruit prospective officers and civilian personnel who are career minded and prioritize retention.

We will have more officers who are familiar with the communities and our people and whom the members of the communities know, like, and trus.t

As Mayor, to reduce the number of property crimes and violent crimes we will immediately institute a series of specific actions to quickly alleviate the root causes. The goal is to lessen the level of community apprehension and concern.

To stop the flow of illegal guns and drugs into Las Vegas, and at the same time, stop human traffiking, I will increase the number of law enforcement officers assigned to patrol our ports, airports, waterways, railways and highways, and other major access points through which contraband may be smuggled into Las Vegas. 

I will establish policies, practices and procedures to better coordinate surveillance activities and communication between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Nevada State Police, Nevada Investigative Division, Nevada Highway patrol, County Police, Homeland Security, TSA officials, and Law enforcement officials from bordering cities and states. We will make certain each of these separate policing agencies can easily access one common communications channel.

We will make certain the various policing agencies are informed and aware of all open investigations, and have access to vital information concerning suspected operations, including the names and descriptions of suspects, and their customary method of operation;

I will support harsher sentencing of persons convicted of crimes and conspiracies to smuggle illegal guns and drugs into Las Vegas.

Clearly, where there is presence there is deterrence. So we will continue to provide high visibility police presence on and around the Las Vegas Strip. We will expand that concept to strategically provide the same type of conspicuous presence in and around other sensitive locations throughout Las Vegas communities, especially in seemingly forgotten areas of the city.

During stops for legitimate cause, police often encounter disconnected youth and young adults, plagued by low self esteem. Some are unwilling or unable to satisfactorily respond to common police questions, such as, "Who are you? "Where are you coming from?" and "Where are you going?"

In our society, parents often have "the talk" with their children. That discussion explains their rights and details how to properly act and react during encounters with the police. However, many children do not have parents. Some have parents who do not have the capacity or the level of involvement in their lives necessary to deliver these potentially life-saving messages.

Therefore, in school Civics classes, all students should be taught their rights and given instructions on how to smartly respond to law enforcement officers when approached.  

Police training should more acutely emphasize the importance of serving and protecting. Police must consistently exercise a healthy mix of police authority, respect for individuals their rights, and patience. 

With careful regard for people’s right to privacy, we will utilize Artificial Intelligence and Face Recognition technology in the least intrusive manner sufficient to deter and prevent crime. We will include safeguards, co-determined and monitored by a citizen oversight committee, to make certain this advanced technology is not abused and does not target or ensnare innocent people.

As Mayor I would also encourage the Sheriff Kevin McMahill to conduct high visibility Outdoor Roll Calls and outdoor Police Academy Recruit Training sessions in and around high crime areas; Station police cars near parks, schools and libraries until they are dispatched to respond to calls, upon completion of that call, they should return to their assigned spot; and Assign officers to street beat foot patrol.

An "Officer Friendly" program will be incorporated into the schools in an effort to improve relations between officers and the youth of Las Vegas. These and other measures are needed to nurture mutual respect between the police and the communities they serve.

Police Board Policy Adjustments: I would direct the Police Board to adjust Las Vegas Police Department policies in an effort to reduce the number of disorderly and domestic disturbance arrests by thirty-three percent (33%).

In regards to the handling of low-level Domestic Disturbances, Las Vegas Police officers should be further trained to distinguish between benign domestic disagreements and hostile confrontations. When police respond to a benign domestic disturbance call, they should immediately separate adversarial parties, de-escalate the situation and take the necessary steps to ensure the continued safely of each of the parties, and that each is free to go their separate way. These steps would require no more time than that which is required to transport and process a person arrested for these relatively minor infractions.

When an arrest does in fact result from a hostile Domestic Disturbance call, even if the victim later refuses to assist in the prosecution, both parties will be offered an opportunity to participate in counseling.

LVMPD Policies, Equipment, and Training: We will institute a complete review of all Police Department policies, practices, and procedures; make certain our department has state of the art equipment; and Ensure that our training is compliant with all state and federally mandated norms.

Body Cameras will yield the most accurate record of encounters and result in a clear and concise record. Such footage will protect the Police and evcourage the preservation of the rights and duties owed to citizens they encounter.

To ensure transparency, Police officers will be outfitted with Body Cams which will be synchronized with Dashboard cams. Those body cams will automatically activate as soon as an officer exits the police car. It will remain active until the officer returns to the car and reports the conclusion of the encounter, or until a supervisor at the station deactivates it or, in the event of an arrest, until the arresting officer arrives at the station.

To reduce police overtime, Police Department highly trained classified agents will review footage and document police encounters and arrests. 

All involved officer(s) will be afforded an opportunity to sign off on the classified agent generated police reports, or request amendments. Upon completion of that process, the final report will be certified and submitted as the official record of that particular police encounter. 

All body cam and dashboard cam footage will remain available as evidence. The footage will only be accessible by authorized personnel in a monitored, sensitive compartmented information facility. All personnel with clearance to access such footage will be required to strictly comply with the rules of identification, conduct, documentation, record-keeping, confidentiality and reporting.

We will better deploy our police manpower and resources to ensure an adequate number of properly equipped officers are patrolling troubled areas and are readily available to respond in case of an emergency. As part of our deployment strategy, Police officers assigned to patrol low crime sector beats will be authorized to patrol and offer assistance in neighboring sector beats.

An "Officer Friendly" program will be incorporated into our efforts to improve relations between officers and the Las Vegas residents and visitors they serve.

These and other measures are needed to foster much needed mutual respect between police and communities.