Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017 | 2:43 p.m.
CARSON CITY — Metro Police have been granted a waiver by a state budget committee to allow the department to go forward with hiring 133 officers.
Police Director Chuck Callaway said the Local Government Finance Committee today had the authority to grant a waiver under a 2013 law that increased the sales tax to employ more cops.
The law that allowed the waiver said the department must fill vacancies with general fund money and not use the additional sales tax revenue to fill vacancies due to resignations or retirement.
He said he didn’t think the waiver was necessary but wanted the department to be transparent and not challenged in its hiring practices.
Callaway of the Office of Intergovernmental Services in the department told the committee there has been an increase in violent crime and the goal of the department is to have 2.2 officers for every 1,000 residents. He said the ration now is about 1.8 per 1,000.
The 2013 Legislature, in authorizing the added sales tax, did not want the department to use the extra money to fill existing vacancies but to put more cops on the street. But it allowed a waiver to permit the hiring of more police, even if the vacancies were not filled from the general fund.
There are presently about 50 vacancies on the police department, and they will be filled with general fund money and not from the extra sales tax fund, Callaway said.
The 2016 special session of the Legislature allowed the Clark County Commission to increase the sales tax by 0.1 percent. That was part of the plan to be ready for the influx of visitors if the Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas.
Callaway said the added sales tax money will allow hiring of 600 more officers over the next several years. It takes a year to train a new police officer.
The budget committee approved the waiver unanimously.
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