Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Metro officers struggle with morale and sagging public image

It's been one bad thing after another at Metro Police, some officers say, causing morale among the rank and file to plummet.

The fall began six years ago when a casino worker was choked to death by officers after they entered his apartment without a warrant. That use of power sent a wave of shock through the community, and Metro has struggled to recover ever since.

Efforts to lift morale have been hampered by the public questioning of the officers' every move. Some behavior, such as the killing of a homeless man, has withstood scrutiny. Other acts -- injuring a petty thief, falsifying documents, shoplifting -- have not.

"These waves or episodes are getting in our way," said Jim Andreas, a Police Protective Association board member. "Now (officers) don't know what to do. Now if you go out and try to take care of your area, you go down like the Campbell three did."

Former Sgt. James Campbell and ex-Officers Robert Phelan and Brian Nicholson were indicted on charges of roughing up a petty thief in a security room at the Fremont hotel-casino.

"We used to be able to get out of our patrol cars," Andreas said. "If we got in a pickle, we had to do things we didn't want to, but we did them."

The May 14 fatal stabbing and shooting of Henry Rowe, a vagrant, by patrol Officer George Pease was ruled justifiable by a coroner's inquest jury. But officers and citizens alike are still questioning the events that led to the killing.

One officer said that as a result of the Pease case, if he comes across an unruly vagrant, he'll just walk away rather than confront him.

The Pease case was followed by the demotion of Lt. Steve "Whitey" Franks from captain, and the three-week suspensions of Franks and Sgt. Ron Fox after they were accused of falsifying and forging documents.

And Mark Beckerly was fired earlier this year after the officer was charged with misdemeanor petty larceny involving an $8.50 dry cleaning bill. The district attorney's office is prosecuting the case.

Most recently, intelligence Detective Bob Conboy was issued a misdemeanor citation after he allegedly shoplifted a cassette tape from a Target store. He faces termination.

Shadowing all that is the Charles Bush case. Bush, a casino floorman, died in 1990 while being subdued in a police chokehold after officers entered his apartment without a warrant. Former Detective Gerald Amerson was fired. Two other officers, Thomas Chasey and Michael Campbell, were demoted and still work for Metro. Legal settlements cost the department $1.1 million.

"It's an accumulation of a lot of things -- the rumors and the lies that have been propagated by some of our own cops, and the inability of the public and the media to understand who we are and how we operate," said Dan Holly, vice president of the Police Protective Association.

"The Bobby Conboys, man, it's just so unfortunate. He's a great guy and a great officer. It's sickening to see, but in areas like that we should be held to a higher standard."

It's the fear of not living up to that higher standard that is bringing down some of Metro's nearly 1,600 uniformed officers.

"Just when we start to recover, something else happens," said homicide Detective Dave Hatch, a 27-year veteran. "Part of the low morale has to do with the way the district attorney's office hammered Pease with questions during the coroner's inquest. It was wrong.

"I've never seen a coroner's inquest conducted this way. We've done some stupid things in the past few years, but they're few and far between. And we're getting slammed."

Hatch is so disgusted by the bad-mouthing of Metro that he's retiring effective Jan. 3 -- 18 months earlier than he planned.

"We're not a bunch of racists," Hatch said. "We're not a bunch of bullies. For every Fremont Hotel incident, there are a hundred good things."

Holly agreed: "It's time after time after time. We can't recover from the Charles Bush thing, because something else happens. That's some of the difficulty the officers are seeing.

"I've seen morale drop. I've seen the attitudes of the policemen change. Maybe they're not as aggressive. Everybody's in check. They're not quite as aggressive and productive as they once were."

The PPA's Andreas said, "I guess the main thing that bothers the guys is the attitude the district attorney is taking with them.

"We used to be able to be policemen, and we don't seem to be able to do that."

Assistant District Attorney J. Charles Thompson responded: "It happens that, unfortunately, some police officers commit crimes and when they do, we prosecute. That's our job, to prosecute criminals. We're going to do what's right, whether it's prosecuting criminals or police.

"No one, including the police, is above the law. I shouldn't think that any police officer would feel unhappy about our job if we're doing it right."

Thompson said the district attorney's office often is put in a no-win situation.

"If we do not prosecute a police officer, even though the facts are somewhat egregious, we are criticized by the public. And when we do prosecute police officers when they do something that is a violation of the law, the police criticize us. We just have to call them as we see them."

Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller disagrees that morale is low.

"I don't believe that," he said. "There are 2,500 people in this department who are committed to making a difference. The women and men of Metro are very pleased with the community and the organization."

If officers have complained, "they're in the minority," Keller said. "I am absolutely convinced that those who attack this department are few in numbers."

If there is a morale problem, it is not reflected in the number of people interested in becoming Metro officers. In May, 1,875 people took the preliminary test to vie for about 100 jobs.

Andreas commended Keller "for standing up against the district attorney on (the Campbell three sentencing). I think he should do more of it."

Keller wrote a letter to District Attorney Stewart Bell asking that the three officers in the Fremont case not serve any prison time.

"It's hard to be cooperative (with the district attorney) when you feel the person coming at you is holding the spear," Andreas said.

Keller said officers should exercise some restraint and hold back at appropriate times.

"I would hope there's not misconduct and that their behavior is appropriate," he said. "I expect the officers to be civil and professional at all times."

If they're not, he said, they'll be disciplined.

"Do we make mistakes?" Keller asked. "Absolutely. Are we accountable? Absolutely. We're not perfect. Some criticism comes in (from the public) that's warranted, and some comes in that's unwarranted."

But saying that the police "can't even defend ourselves anymore, that's not true," Keller said.

Keller used the Pease case as an example.

"If someone hits an officer with a rock and takes his weapon, the officer will defend himself with every means possible," he said. "If someone attacks an officer, we expect him to defend himself."

He said "every single officer who comes into this department is tested to see if he has compassion and emotions and empathy toward people, a heart and a set of ears to listen to people."

Andreas noted that morale historically has gone up and down in the department.

"I've been a cop for 25 years," he said. "There always seems to be something that causes low morale. Police work is not a happy-type job."

He believes if officers "want morale to go up, it will go up. If they want morale to go down, it will go down. You can make your own attitude whatever you want to make it."

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