Time for new home

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 | 2:08 a.m.

When Metro Police go about their business of protecting and serving Southern Nevadans, they do so from 56 locations throughout the Las Vegas Valley, hardly a centralized operation. Running a decentralized department as big as Metro certainly has its downsides. The most obvious is the waste of fuel as officers and other employees crisscross the valley to attend meetings with colleagues. Beyond that is the fact that law enforcement agencies must constantly share and analyze intelligence and crime trend information, which is always harder to do when they must rely on telephones and fax machines or a 20-mile drive just to communicate with colleagues.

That is why the idea of a centralized campus, one Metro is proposing for the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alta Drive, makes perfect sense. With Las Vegas looking to build a new City Hall, a facility it shares with Metro, now is the time for the agency to establish a new home. Taking over the existing City Hall is not an option because it is too small to meet Metro’s needs, particularly considering population projections.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie and other top brass ought to be in the same location as many bureaus now scattered elsewhere, such as those dealing with gang crimes, forensic lab work, internal affairs, in-service training and accounting. A more consolidated agency would lead to more efficient communication and better crime-fighting results. Locating along Martin Luther King also would give police a much-needed higher profile in that neighborhood.

The financial details of Metro’s proposed 30-year lease of the property from developer Mark L. Fine & Associates of Las Vegas have yet to be finalized. Although there is no question that financing will be the most debated aspect of the proposal, there is also no doubt that if action is not taken soon, the price of any future centralized campus is certain to go up because of rising construction costs.