Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Show of Force: History of Las Vegas law enforcement displayed at Charleston Heights

Metro Police Lt. Dennis Larsen studied the black-and-white photographs depicting Las Vegas law enforcement over the years.

In one, a 1930s-era Las Vegas Police Department officer rests his foot on the running board of a speeder's car. His Indian motorcycle is parked nearby.

In another, slick motorcycle cops rest on their Harley-Davidsons while they watch traffic on Main and Fremont streets in the 1940s.

Other images capture deputy sheriffs posed in pinstriped pants and Stetson hats, while square-jawed officers aid damsels in distress for publicity photos.

"It was a different time back then," said Larsen, admiring the collection that includes recent Metro photographs. "Society has changed over the years. Gang problems, we didn't have any gang problems when I came on. A drive-by shooting was never heard of."

In fact, two years after Larsen joined the force, local law enforcement's biggest crisis was a war with itself: a 1973 consolidation between the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Office that created Metro.

Tensions were so high they occasionally caused fistfights among personnel.

"Believe me, it was not a bowl of cherries when it took off," Larsen said with a laugh. "Most people who worked with the agencies were proud to work with that particular agency."

The excitement eventually tapered off, however, and Metro, which wasn't expected to last a year, survived.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the city of Las Vegas is hosting an exhibit at the Charleston Heights Arts Center Gallery. On display through July 6 are old guns, badges, radios, uniforms and dozens of photographs documenting the camaraderie and evolution of Las Vegas law enforcement.

The exhibit is merely a taste of the collection that Larsen and retired Lt. Clark "Skip" Coleman began in 1996.

"Out of 10,000 negatives and prints, we had to narrow it down to 50," Larsen said, referring to the exhibit. "We took a lot of stuff up there that we felt depicted all three agencies."

Holding "saps," hand-held leather weapons filled with powdered lead and BBs, he explained, "These were carried back in the '30s, '40s, '50s up to the '70s. One of these is Herman Moody's the first black police officer on the Las Vegas Police Department. He came on in 1946.

"We have a lot of his stuff. He donated a lot of uniforms, his gun belt, his leather gear, his badge."

Accumulating equipment and memorabilia from retired officers hasn't been difficult. For years most of the uniforms, radios and equipment were either thrown out or ended up in a retiree's attic.

"Nobody ever really managed the history," Larsen said. "We saved pictures. And every now and then officers saved things from their daily world. When we got the word out, they dug through attics and lo and behold.

"The only thing we're lacking now is a nice facility to display them in."

The collection, which belongs to the nonprofit Metropolitan Police Museum Association of Nevada Inc. (of which Larsen is president), is stored in two warehouses. A facility to display the items would require financial backing that the organization doesn't have.

Police museum

A police museum would put Las Vegas in line with other cities such as Phoenix, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles, all of which have their own similar museums.

"I like to see what they have, what they preserved," said former Metro homicide detective Karen Good, who has visited police museums in Chicago and San Francisco.

"I like the old photos and I like the old articles about the cases."

But officers visiting Las Vegas have no museum to peruse.

"We have officers who come from out of town, for vacation or extradition and they call the department and they say, 'We want to see your museum,' " Good said. "They're disappointed. But we tell them we're working on it."

Good, who began her law enforcement career working a graveyard shift in records, moved to homicide during consolidation and became its first female detective to work in sexual assault.

When she retired eight years ago, Larsen was there to ask about her uniform.

"He hit me up at my retirement party," Good said. "I figured, 'What am I going to do, leave it in a box in my closet?' "

Her uniform adorns a mannequin waiting in a warehouse, and Good is on the museum's board.

"We have a lot of what looks like junk," Good said. "But there's a lot of history to it. Officers would keep scrapbooks, boxes of newspaper articles, recruitment posters, photographs."

Museum home

Once a facility is secured, organizers say they can highlight notorious cases and captures (such as criminals Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, who were featured in Truman Capote's novel "In Cold Blood" and were captured in Las Vegas in 1959) honor fallen officers and showcase old policy manuals and officer scrapbooks.

Six police cars have been restored and would be part of the museum. Three of them were featured Friday at the exhibit's opening: a 1973 black-and-white Plymouth Fury used by the Clark County Sheriff's Department, a 1973 blue-and-white Plymouth Satellite used by the Las Vegas Police Department, and a 1974 tan-and-white Dodge Monaco used by Metro when the departments merged.

The most unique and oldest items in the collection are two complete jail cells used in Searchlight at the turn of the 20th century.

After serving Searchlight, the cells were placed in the old Las Vegas city jail on Second Street, known as the "Blue Room." When that jail was torn down, the Elks Lodge bought the cells to use for Kangaroo Court during Helldorado Days.

Public access to the collection would be invaluable, Larsen said.

"There are a lot of people in this community who think Metro evolved in 1906," he said. "No one ever heard of Las Vegas City Police."

The Las Vegas Police Department formed in 1911, two years after the Clark County Sheriff's office formed. When the two agencies merged to resolve rivalries and combine facilities and equipment, Southern Nevada's population was 720,000, less than half what it is now.

Among today's 4,300-strong staff at Metro, there are 23 officers and 10 civilian staff members who were working on the force at consolidation.

"Today we'll go places and razz each other about it," Larsen said. "It's not like it was 30 years ago. There's no undying devotion to Las Vegas police and sheriff's department. That time has come and gone."com

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