Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Metro Police budget upped 10 percent to $539 million

Metro Police Display Body Worn Cameras

L.E. Baskow

Metro Police Sgt. Peter Ferranti with a body-worn camera on his shoulder during a media event Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, at the Mohave Training Center.

Updated Monday, April 27, 2015 | 6:20 p.m.

Metro Police today got approval for a boost in funding next fiscal year, allowing the department to buy more than 300 new body cameras, hire 75 new employees and reopen the lobbies of four substations.

The issue:

The Fiscal Affairs Committee, a panel of city and county officials that oversees the agency’s hybrid budget, approved Metro’s proposal for a $539 million operating budget — a 10 percent increase from last year. Metro’s budget is supported by city and county general funds as well as local voter-approved taxes.

"The sun is rising for Metro," Sheriff Joe Lombardo said, noting that today's vote brings the agency closer to pre-recession funding levels. The agency had budget of $549 million before the recent economic downturn.

The vote:

The committee unanimously approved the $539 million budget.

What it means:

Metro will have the following additional resources next year:

• The department will hire 30 more officers. For a second consecutive year, Metro will hire more officers than it has lost to attrition. The new positions bring Metro’s cop-to-citizen ratio to 1.75 officers per 1,000 residents. Lombardo wants to get the number of officers in that equation closer to two, but Metro Chief Financial Officer Rich Hoggan says the department has a long way to go to achieve that ratio.

"Fortunately, we're not seeing a continuous decline," Hoggan said.

• Metro will also hire 16 new employees to staff four substation front offices closed to the public after the recession. Now the public will be able to visit all eight of the department’s substations to file police reports or talk with employees in person. The budget also gives Metro approval to hire 29 other employees in the human resources, records and dispatch divisions.

• The agency will buy 336 new body cameras. It will also expand the infrastructure for its camera pilot program, which already uses 200 of the devices. Later this fiscal year, Lombardo also plans to ask for money to buy an additional 100. Those purchases, bolstered by acquisitions through federal grants, could bring up the department's total number of cameras to 700.

Lombardo is a proponent of camera technology, which was credited for unearthing a case of excessive force by one officer last month. Since the pilot program began in November, dozens of other officers have also been exonerated after accusations of improper behavior.

• Metro will get $6 million for a new search-and-rescue helicopter, bringing up its aircraft total to six. In the future, Lombardo wants to ask for another $6 million to replace another search-and-rescue helicopter that is "limping along."

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