Latest candidate to join sheriff race says he’s a ‘team builder’

By Jackie Valley

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013 | 12:06 p.m.

Metro Police Capt. Larry Burns announced he was running for sheriff, making him the second internal candidate and fifth person vying for Las Vegas’ top police job.

Burns, a 27-year veteran of the department, has served as captain of the Bolden Area Command in west Las Vegas for almost three years.

“It was a surprise to me that Sheriff Gillespie made the decision not to run for that third term,” Burns said today. “I hadn’t thought about it in any serious way until he made that announcement.”

Burns, 55, said he consulted with people inside and outside Metro Police before making his final decision. He plans a rally later this month.

Burns said he spent time as executive lieutenant to Gillespie and was the longest-serving SWAT commander in department history, among other Metro assignments. More recently, he led an initiative that pooled police, community agencies and faith-based organizations to rehab the troubled Sherman Gardens public housing area, resulting in crime reductions.

“I believe I can move the organization forward,” said Burns, who is married and has eight children. “I’m a real team builder. I’m huge with our department slogan, ‘partners with the community.’”

Burns joins the following candidates in the race for sheriff:

• Former Assistant Sheriff Ted Moody, who resigned from the police force in July in protest of Gillespie’s decision not to fire an officer who had been recommended for termination by the department’s Use of Force Review Board, which Moody chaired.

• Robert “Bobby G” Gronauer, a former Las Vegas Township constable, who retired from Metro as a sergeant in 1999 after a 24-year career.

• Officer Laurie Bisch, who works patrol in Metro’s Bolden Area Command and ran for sheriff in 2010 and 2006.

• Angel Barboza, a District Court marshal who once served a stint as police chief in Wendover, Utah.