Sheriff Kevin McMahill delivers the State of the Department address at the Smith Center Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023 | 6:45 p.m.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill would like to see crime in Metro Police’s jurisdiction drop 10% by the end of the year, even as the department deals with increased homicide rates, understaffing and a nationwide call for police reform.
During his State of the Department address to an audience that included Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, several members of the Las Vegas City Council and other elected officials, McMahill introduced his plan to “inject humanity” into everything Metro does internally and externally.
“We have a great police department, but we still have problems,” he said Wednesday morning at the Smith Center. “And I want to make it even greater.”
The new year began with 11 homicides in as many days, including six in the downtown Las Vegas corridor, and a series of casino cage robberies throughout the valley. Though the casino robbery suspect remains at large, McMahill said, almost every homicide has been solved and the rates have plateaued.
“There’s a tremendous amount of work that has been done in a very short period of time,” said McMahill, who delivered his first State of the Department address after being elected in June and taking office last month. He succeeds Joe Lombardo, who served eight years as sheriff and is now governor of Nevada.
One of the biggest challenges facing Metro is understaffing, McMahill said, noting that the department started the year with 300 unfilled positions — the equivalent of two area commands.
McMahill hopes to build bridges between the department and local communities through recruitment efforts, especially engaging communities of color and people ages 18 to 21.
“We’ve put a damper on that homicide rate that’s been going up, but the bottom line is that you need cops to fight crime,” he said.
The number of applicants to Metro has dropped 70%, which McMahill attributed in part to national outrage atpolice officers after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the recent death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died in Memphis, Tenn., after he was beaten by police officers using excessive force.
There was “no humanity” exhibited by the police officers responsible for either man’s death, McMahill said.
“When these things continue to happen, we have a duty and a responsibility to pay attention across the board,” he said, also acknowledging the difficulty that police officers of color face in their career compared to their white counterparts.
Leaders must continually push an organization to expand, McMahill said, and reimagine how police can be more effective and reduce violent crime overall.
One way to do that is to stop viewing certain Las Vegas neighborhoods as chronically “high crime,” McMahill said, and recognize instead that they are “vulnerable communities” where arrest does not need to be the default approach.
“Start looking at them as a way that we as a police department can go in there and have dramatic outcomes that are different than what it is that we’ve always had,” McMahill said. “That is what this police department is going to do by injecting humanity into our policing approach with our community.”
He added that Metro would work with the Legislature and Congress to help progress, and also would aim to partner with the city of Las Vegas and Clark County in an effort to resolve issues that incarceration will not, such as homelessness, addiction and mental health.
McMahill, who has more than three decades of service in Metro, including six as undersheriff during Lombardo’s tenure, also emphasized the importance of wellness within the department, pointing to efforts to give employees more time with their families, to find funding for “radically” taking care of first responders and ultimately to communicate in a way that is appreciative and empowering.
“Because if we don’t get it right, internally, we’re never going to get it right externally,” he said. “ … We have to change our mindset. We have to change the way that we act and react. We have to recognize that we’re all in this fight together to make this community a better place for all of us.”
Though some people may be skeptical, McMahill said, he’s confident that by “injecting humanity,” the department can decrease crime by 10% before next year.
“I believe that, but we’re not as great as we think we are yet,” he said. “We have a way to go. We have a lot of things to improve upon. We have the right people.”
