LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill delivered the State of Department address to the members of the department and the media, inside the MSG Sphere, on the 5th floor Expo Hall on Monday, February 26, 2024.
Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill emphasized achievements within the Metro Police Department and new goals for it, including an increased emphasis on reducing traffic deaths in Las Vegas, during his State of the Department address Monday.
The speech, delivered at the Sphere, focused largely on McMahill’s goal of reducing all crime in Metro’s jurisdiction by 10%, which he proposed in last year’s State of the Department address. Most areas of crime have been on the decline, according to data McMahill presented Monday, including a 27.1% reduction in burglary and 30.2% reduction in aggravated assaults last year.
McMahill attributed the decreases not just to the work of Metro Police but specifically to the department’s initiative to engage with the community more frequently.
“Those reductions are because we went out and we developed those relationships,” McMahill said. “We went out and engaged different members of the community.”
McMahill also highlighted the record-high clearance rate of homicides by Metro. That’s the rate at which murders are solved and suspects apprehended. Metro’s homicide clearance rate sits at 92%, McMahill said, compared with a national average of around 50%, according to the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on the criminal justice system.
Not all of McMahill’s news was rosy. Other areas of crime are facing sharp increases locally, like a 36.5% increase in auto thefts, which the sheriff said he considered a failure by Metro. McMahill attributed part of the increase to the “Kia challenge” on TikTok that showed how to hijack vulnerable Kia and Hyundai car models using only a USB cord. The challenge led to a national increase in car thefts. which McMahill said he considers a “failure” by the department.
At the top of McMahill’s priorities is reducing traffic-related deaths in Las Vegas. As of Monday, there have been 30 traffic-related deaths in Metro Police’s jurisdiction in 2024, and reducing further traffic fatalities is a “huge” point of focus, the sheriff said.
“I’m tired of picking people up off the road,” McMahill noted.
McMahill suggested and endorsed limited use of red-light and speed cameras across Metro’s jurisdiction, but acknowledged potential shortcomings to their usage, including an increase in rear-end crashes and a potential disparity in targeting minority communities.
“I think we have to have reliable, real conversation at the adult level, and take the emotion out of it and say, ‘Is there value in this technology to help change the driving behaviors here in Southern Nevada?’ ” McMahill said.
Before red-light or speed cameras can be used to ticket drivers, a change in state law would be needed.
Several other points of discussion during McMahill’s presentation were Metro’s handling of security at major events like the Formula One race and the Super Bowl, and how large-scale events like those can increase human trafficking threats. During Super Bowl Week, Metro Police made over 400 vice and sex trafficking-related arrests, according to data he presented.
McMahill also highlighted the now fully staffed dispatch center, which the sheriff described as “decimated” at the beginning of last year, having only been at 50% capacity. Metro Police’s dispatch center hit full capacity in August, McMahill reported.
