Slain man’s father says police still treating minorities badly

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 3:40 a.m.

Ramon Mendoza, father of a young man gunned down by two off-duty Metro Police officers in a drive-by shooting two years ago, says changes instituted by the police department since the murder have not resulted in improved treatment for minorities.

Mendoza spoke at a news conference in front of his attorney's office Thursday afternoon after learning that former officer Chris Brady pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation charge in connection with the Dec. 28, 1996, murder of Daniel Mendoza, 21.

Former police officer Ron Mortensen is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for being the trigger man in the killing, said to be the result of two rogue cops who were targeting gang members and drug users.

Ramon Mendoza, speaking through an interpreter, said police still are racist and routinely harass his 13-year-old son. Mendoza has two other sons, both adults.

"Everything is the same," Mendoza said. "My (youngest) son, when they see him they stop him, search him, make him take his shirt off to make sure he's not carrying anything."

Mendoza believes there is widespread prejudice against Hispanics in Southern Nevada.

"The way I see it, the Hispanic people here are not in our country, so we get the racism from everyone. They forget we are human," Mendoza said.

Steve Meriwether, a spokesman for the Metro Police Department, sees things differently.

He said there have been dramatic changes in the department since the shooting, after which Sheriff Jerry Keller made a Cultural Awareness program a mandatory part of training at the police academy and took a number of other steps to ensure that the Mendoza shooting is not repeated.

"It has had a huge impact," Meriwether said.

He said "ethnically diverse members of the community" teach the Cultural Awareness program at the academy.

"They come in and teach about different ethnicities, about different cultures. The recruits learn right from the people, what to look for and how to treat them, how to treat them in different situations," Meriwether said.

He said the instructors are a "complete mix of various types of individuals" who volunteer to help the recruits become more culturally sensitive.

In addition to the Cultural Awareness program, since Mendoza's death there have been a number of changes related to hiring recruits.

"We've doubled the number of background investigators so we can spend more time doing backgrounds on individuals," Meriwether said.

Also, a new review process has been instituted to determine whether a recruit should be hired if a question should arise in the hiring process.

"A board now makes that decision whether to hire," Meriwether said.

The board consists of a background investigator, a psychiatric counselor, a polygraph examiner and a number of higher ranking police officers.

In the past the decision was made by one man, Meriwether said.

"We also have increased the numbers of recruiters to try to bring in a more ethnically diverse population into the department," he said.

Recruiters travel to such places as New York City, San Antonio, Texas, San Diego and other major metropolitan areas.

"We're trying to be as ethnically diverse as we can," Meriwether said.

He said the most recent figures indicate the department, which is comprised of about 1,800 commissioned officers and 1,700 others, is about 82.21 percent white, 6.48 percent Hispanic, 8.47 percent black, 1.64 percent Asian and 0.6 percent Native American.

Meriwether said he didn't have figures available comparing the ethnic makeup now with what it was prior to the newly instituted programs, but he believes there has been a significant change in the make-up.

"Absolutely," he said, "and it's due in part to our diverse hiring practices."

While ACLU Executive Director Gary Peck said he believes there are still serious questions about how Metro's investigation of Mendoza's murder was handled, he complimented Keller for speaking out against hate crimes and civil rights violations.

"I'm heartened to hear the sheriff say he now has implemented an early warning system to help ensure these type incidents don't occur again and that he is determined to aggressively enforce hate crime laws," Peck said.

At the same time, Peck said he hopes Keller understands that "problems of bigotry and prejudice are not confined to one or two officers."