Metro report: Officer-involved shootings hit 5-year low in ‘21

By Casey Harrison (contact)

Friday, July 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Police shootings in Las Vegas decreased nearly 50% last year, according to a report recently released by Metro Police — a trend one high-ranking department official said can be attributed to an increase in patrol officers hired in 2021, as well as a revamped approach to how police deal with potentially dangerous subjects.

The report, commissioned by Metro’s Office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing and released June 27, stated 10 officer-involved shootings took place throughout the department’s jurisdiction in 2021, down from the 19 reported in 2020 and the lowest figure spanning the report’s five-year scope which dates back to 2017. Metro averaged 18 police shootings in that same time frame.

Six of those shootings arose from “violent” calls for service — reports of a person with a gun, an assault or battery or a robbery — another three stemmed from nonviolent service calls, and one occurred after a vehicle stop, according to the report. Six of last year’s police shootings were fatal, the lowest total since 2019, when four people died after a police shooting.

Capt. Carlos Hank, who leads the Metro section responsible for the five-year use of force report, credited improved training the department has utilized to address incidents in which the potential for a fatal outcome with a suspect was possible. He also cited a 16% increase in officers on staff since 2017 (a total gain of 609 officers), and an increase in nondeadly use of force when engaging with a potential suspect.

“We as law enforcement have to recognize and continue to keep at our forefront to reduce the amount of officer-involved shootings and take whatever necessary steps to de-escalate these situations to reduce the chance of that occurring,” Hank said. “It’s a very small percentage of incidents that are occurring, however, we can’t lose sight of the fact how do we reduce that smaller number of 10 (shootings). How do we continually strive to reduce that?”

Metro responded to 1,633,879 incidents in the field last year, meaning a police shooting occurred in 0.0006% of officer engagements, according to the report. But still, Metro sees room for improvement so even fewer police shootings occur in the future, Hank said.

What made the biggest difference in reducing police shootings last year compared to years prior, Hank said, was having a supervisor on-scene when the use of force is probable. A Metro supervisor was on-scene in 70% of police shootings last year, a 17% increase from 2020, and 43% hike since 2017, according to the report.

It’s important to have a supervisor on-scene, Hank said, because they can help defuse tensions with a suspect, as well as establish designated roles for responding officers and call for using less lethal uses of force, like Tasers, a less-than-lethal shotgun or a 40 mm Specialty Impact Weapon, which fires a large foam projectile designed to assist apprehend suspects, Hank said.

“We’ve emphasized that as a department for supervisors to get on-scene quickly, establish a plan, communicate that plan and look at options that they have available to them,” Hank said.

“If you create distance, you create time to make decisions. You end up with a better outcome than if you rush things. It’s like anything we do in life: If we properly plan, we have better outcomes. The failure to plan is planning to fail.”

Midway through 2022, Metro has had six officer-involved shootings.

Frank Cooper, director of the Program on Race, Gender and Policing at the UNLV Boyd School of Law, said Metro should be credited for the low number of police shootings last year, but that number should stay low in the years to follow before it’s regarded as a trend.

“Metro does seem to have gotten a lot better on use of force policies; they clearly pay attention to them,” Cooper said. “The concern I have is that it’s a one-year significant drop. Of course, I want to commend them for that. There are definitely worse departments out there.

“What we will need is with the five-year numbers, that fifth year is where it is now, right? Then they can say, ‘Alright, this really is a trend.’ ”

Helping reduce the number of police shootings, Hank said, was effective use of nonlethal force. Metro recorded 941 nondeadly use of force incidents in 2021, a five-year high that represented a 22% increase in that same span.

The most common nonlethal uses of force officers used last year were classified as “empty hand tactics,” where an officer subdues a suspect without a weapon, which were effective 92% of the time and were deployed 689 times, according to the report. Electronic Control Devices, more commonly known as stun guns or Tasers, were the second-highest use of nonlethal force by officers, used 181 times, proving effective 69% of the time. K-9 units were used 35 times, with 100% effectiveness.

“I believe when you get to the point where you are focusing your efforts on de-escalating and you focus on the sanctity of life, and you focus on assessing and reassessing the situation, and you focus on pre-planning, you’re going to end up with a better outcome,” Hank said. “(When) we use less lethal tools, those numbers may go up, and you’ll see that there are some of those less lethal tools that are up. But there is less deadly force as a result.”

Last year marked the first that the department began recording use of the restraint chair, deployed 19 times in 2021. The restraint chair — a device outfitted with straps and belts to secure a person’s arms, legs and torso —is defined as “an intermediate force level of control” reserved for subjects displaying “assaultive resistance or higher,” according to the report.

Use of the lateral vascular neck restraint became prohibited after October 2021, and figures for how many times it was used up to that point weren’t in the report. Uses of the neck restraint peaked at 31 times in 2017 and decreased steadily from 21 uses in both 2018 and 2019 until it was used just 11 times in 2020.

Metro, Cooper said, has come a long way since 2012, when it first began collaborating with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services to overhaul department policy. Before then, Cooper said, Metro’s reputation nationally was seen as a department with a bad use of force problem, particularly against African Americans.

While far from perfect, Metro has made significant strides from its former reputation, Cooper said. And a commitment to continued transparency will help bridge the gap to where Metro ultimately wants to end up he, said.

“It is good that they do the five-year look back and not just an annual report,” Cooper said. “Because the five-year does show that there was a great deal more officer-involved shootings the past four years than this last year that they’re reporting. … (and) at a very general level, I’d say there’s been a bit of an attitude shift in that the public is pressuring police to be more aware of use of force policies.”

Hank agreed, and said Metro could only continue to make inroads with the community if it was perpetually working to hold officers — as well as the public — accountable.

“Citizens of our community, they want to know what the police are doing,” Hank said. “They want to know how the police are doing it. And, I think, this report illustrates that.”