Wednesday, April 6, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.
The More Cops Initiative would only fund officers and their equipment, proponents said Tuesday. Clark County needs more officers partly because of an increase in calls for service, which Sheriff Bill Young said has led to a lag in response time. In 2004, officers in Clark County responded to:
Police Hires
Under the police initiative, over a 10-year period almost 1,700 officers would be hired. The number of officers by city to be hired and the current average ratios of police officers per 1,000 residents:
The members of the Assembly Growth and Infrastructure Committee said they need to see proof of what local governments have been spending on public safety in the past few years before approving the measure.
Local governments will also need to continue that funding at the same level or higher once the money from the sales tax starts rolling in, said the committee's chairman, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson. "They need to be able to show good faith that this is going to be an improvement or an addition to the funding stream for public safety," Perkins said.
Voters approved the More Cops Initiative last November, which would add a 1/2 cent sales tax between now and 2009. The money will likely be used to fund more police officers. Proponents estimate the tax could add almost 1,700 new officers in the next 10 years.
The initiative was just an advisory question, however, and the Legislature has to approve the new tax this session.
Cities in Clark County, along with the county commission, have already promised to use the money for new officers.
The Clark County Commission, for example, has increased its contribution to the Metro Police budget by an average of 14 percent a year, said Rory Reid, county commission chairman.
The county will continue to increase funds to Metro Police but needs assistance in order to catch up with growth, he said.
Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, the head of Metro, said he intends to use 80 percent of the funds for new patrol and traffic officers and the remaining for new detectives. Some money will also be used for equipment.
"There is no question whatsoever ," Young said. "Statistically, we need these cops."
The money, he said, will go only to "cops, their cars and equipment."
Even though local governments have approved large increases in money for officers, the county still lags behind the national average of 2.5 police officers per 1,000 residents.
Local municipalities range from 1 officer per 1,000 people in Henderson to 2 officers per 1,000 people in Mesquite.
And those ratios do not include tourists who come to the Las Vegas Valley, said Lt. Stan Olsen, a Metro lobbyist.
"This is an officer safety issue," Olsen said. "Many times officers are responding to calls they should not respond to alone."
Other police agencies on Tuesday also said the money is sorely needed.
Henderson Police Chief Mike Mayberry, who just retired, pointed out that response times are lagging.
"The response times are approaching 10 minutes on priority one calls," he said. "We need to get them down."
Mayberry said he believes in the initiative so strongly that he spent Tuesday -- his first day of retirement -- in Carson City lobbying for the measure.
The lack of resources is so bad that Young said his department stopped responding to auto thefts years ago, simply telling people to report them by phone.
Even though Clark County is rapidly becoming the county with the most car thefts in the country, officers are unable to properly investigate the thefts, he said.
And criminals know it, he said.
"It hurts all of us when we're not able to send a police officer in those types of crimes," he said.
Perkins, however, pointed out that the crime rate could actually increase once the officers are hired and are on the streets to make more arrests.
"When you have a lack of personnel the crime rates are going to up because the picking's easy," he said. "As we add officers, the crime rates will rise because they're dealing with crime."
Cities will start seeing less crime once there are about 2 officers for every 1,000 residents, said Perkins, who is also the deputy police chief in Henderson.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said she would like more information about where police officers are stationed. She said she doesn't want the bulk of new officers to go to the Las Vegas Strip.
Young said he allocates officers based on population and the number of calls for service received. The officers would be distributed throughout the county, he said.
Under the initiative, a 1/4 cent sales tax increase would take effect in July of this year. Another 1/4 cent increase would take effect in July 2009, bringing Clark County's sales tax rate to 8 percent.
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