Editorial: Trooper pay must become competitive

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 | 9:06 a.m.

When all the facts are put together, it's fair to say that Col. David Hosmer, commander of the Nevada Highway Patrol, has a crisis on his hands. He plans to outline the facts for the 2005 Legislature and ask for help. We hope the Legislature is as helpful to the force as its individual troopers are to the driving public. If nothing is done, the future of the highway patrol as a key player in public safety will be in jeopardy.

Clark County is authorized to have 133 troopers. Instead, we have 64. There should be eight troopers patrolling Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and the California line. Instead, there are three. There should be 400 or 500 people showing up to take the state's trooper exams. Instead, 55 showed up for the exam last month, a number so low it might produce just one new trooper. Four years ago, response time for emergencies averaged 6.5 minutes. Today it's 11.5 minutes. Since June 2003, 39 troopers have been hired for the Las Vegas area. But during that same time, 38 troopers left the force for other jobs.

The question for the Legislature, in our view, is: Do we want an effective highway patrol, or don't we?

If we do, it's time to wake up to what's causing this crisis. The starting salary for a state trooper is $33,798. Metro Police pays $44,903. The Henderson and North Las Vegas police departments start officers at more than $43,000. How is the highway patrol expected to retain its officers when Metro and the city police departments pay so much more? Especially when the other departments see troopers as ideal candidates, as they are already licensed to be Nevada police officers and have experience in traffic enforcement and accident investigations.

The situation will only become worse for the highway patrol if the Legislature reacts positively to Question 9. This is the Clark County ballot question that voters approved last month, which asked if they would pay extra in sales taxes for more police officers. If the Legislature allows the tax increase, opportunities at Metro and the city police departments will greatly increase, giving troopers even greater incentive to jump ship.

Last year 79 people died on Southern Nevada highways and already this year 100 have died -- there are not enough troopers to regularly patrol the high-risk areas. The best hope for better highway safety lies with making the jobs of highway patrol officers more competitive.