Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Is it time for appointed sheriff?

When Los Angeles went looking for a new police chief, the city's police commission conducted a national search before it turned to William Bratton, under whose tenure as New York City police commissioner, the city's murder rate had dropped 50 percent. He also was known as a pioneer in modern police management and the use of technology to focus crime-fighting and prevention on neighborhoods that needed it most.

Already, violent and property crime rates have fallen in Los Angeles since he arrived in 2002.

Should Bratton ever decide that he prefers Las Vegas loud to L.A. cool and makes a pitch to lead Metro Police, he won't stand a chance.

In fact, a successful businessman with a helicopter company and some small-city law enforcement experience has a far better shot at becoming the next man to lead Metro's 2,800 officers.

That's because Las Vegas is one of few large, urban departments in America with an elected police leader, the result of a 33-year-old idea spawned when the valley still had a small-town feel.

Electing a police administrator allows voters to fire and hire Metro's leader every four years. By confining itself to candidates who can stand and win in a local election, though, Las Vegas is at a distinct disadvantage in its search for law enforcement talent, say criminologists and police officials across the country.

Policing experts also say an elected sheriff exposes Metro to the politicization of campaigns and the fundraising they require.

"That's so outmoded," said Edward Mamet, a retired New York City police captain who's now a consultant for departments around the country.

Although county sheriffs are most often elected, they usually police unincorporated rural and suburban areas, not cities such as Las Vegas. There are other large police departments with elected sheriffs, including Los Angeles County, but the cities within those counties have their own urban police departments led by appointed chiefs or commissioners.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, in announcing this month that he won't seek re-election to a second term, expressed frustration with the hybrid system that has him answering to two masters - the city of Las Vegas and the county. And while he said that he didn't mind answering to the people and stood by the position as an elective office, he said the system of campaigning and governing "is broken."

By purely statistical measures, the department certainly has its challenges.

While violent crime reached historically low levels nationally in 2004, it increased 32 percent in Metro's jurisdiction from 2000 to 2004, according to the federal government's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Property crime increased nearly 24 percent during the same time. The number of auto thefts more than doubled between 2000 and 2005.

Metro officials blame growth and say Census Bureau demographers haven't accurately accounted for it. They also say they're undermanned. Metro had one-third the number of officers - 17 per 10,000 residents - as New York City, per capita, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Other local officials interviewed conceded that Metro needs some reforms, but they support continuing to elect the Clark County sheriff.

Criminologists and policing experts disagree.

"Among the most professional departments," said Samuel Walker, a criminologist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, "there's recognition that you should have a national search. But in the case of your Metro, you're only getting a local candidate, and they might not even be a police officer."

Daryl Meeks, a California police officer and criminologist at Cal State-Long Beach, said the most effective police administrators "are those selected through a competitive process where their skills, talents and experience can be judged in an objective manner, and that's more likely to occur in a competitive interview environment."

Walker said the changes in police work during the past 20 years - new technology, community policing techniques and emphasis on accountability - require sophistication. That's attracted and created a new class of elite professionals who prove themselves in one department before moving to a larger one, he said.

These administrative skills don't always overlap with the political skills required to win elective office, Meeks said.

Gregory Russell, a former prosecutor and currently director of criminology and forensic sciences at Arkansas State University, takes it a step further: "You don't want to hire from within a large department. You have to go outside. It's the only way to enforce rule changes, rule implementation, new discipline. If you're disciplining people who were your equals before, it doesn't work."

Richard Tefank, executive director of the L.A. Board of Police Commissioners, agreed: "If you grew up in a system, it's hard to make changes to that system."

An elected sheriff also exposes Metro to politicization, criminologists and others said.

This could entail promoting political cronies; interfering with investigations that could be politically damaging or favorable; using a certain racial or ethnic group as a convenient scapegoat for rising crime; or sending more resources into politically powerful neighborhoods.

Michael Green, a Nevada historian at the Community College of Southern Nevada, said Las Vegas has been fortunate that people with police experience have been elected since the 1973 merger of the Las Vegas Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff's Office. But, he wondered, "What if the day comes when the job goes suddenly from democratic to demagogic?

Green cited past politicization of the office: Glenn Jones, Clark County sheriff in the '40s and '50s, was caught peddling influence, on tape. Ralph Lamb, sheriff between 1961 and 1978, was often accused of corruption and politicization, Green said.

Although Young has not been accused of being a political sheriff, he acknowledged his frustration with the political demands of the job - the constant fundraising, the never-ending campaign of gripping and grinning.

The job is made more complex by its strange nature. The sheriff's office merged with the police department in 1973. The sheriff, however, doesn't have his own budget authority, and the city and the county often fight over each other's financial contribution to Metro, with the sheriff caught in the middle.

Young's solution was to fight for a sales tax increase for more cops. He won that battle, but it embodied how deeply political the office is.

Green noted the political complexities of the job, wherein the sheriff must serve many masters. He needs the endorsement of the police union to help get elected. He needs to please both the city and the county's elected officials and bureaucrats. Then, there are the political donors, the consultants, the Strip, the public and the press.

While not advocating an appointed top cop, Green said residents should consider the merits of an elected sheriff.

"It goes back to ward-heeler days. We don't elect the head of parks and recreation, or the head of the fire department. But we're electing the person who has the most to say about whether we are safe in our homes and in our streets."

County Commissioners Rory Reid and Bruce Woodbury both stand by an elected sheriff.

"I think voters are sophisticated and have a right to have a voice in who leads their police agency," Reid said.

Said Woodbury: "I think by-and-large the system has worked fairly well. For the most part we've gotten good sheriffs. I think it's good to have them independent and answerable to the voters."

Both said the state has a long history of elective accountability, and also said an outsider might have trouble finding his or her way amidst the construction cranes, quirky politics and 24-hour vice of Las Vegas.

"It would take someone from out of state a considerable amount of time to know the lay of the land, to know where the bodies are buried," Woodbury said.

Nevertheless, changes need to be made, Reid and Woodbury agreed.

Specifically, they and County Manager Thom Reilly said the sheriff should have an independent revenue stream and be responsible for his own budget, rather than wrangling with the two jurisdictions or trying to force it out of the tax-resistant public.

"He needs more control over his own assets and more accountability," Woodbury said. "He shouldn't be competing with all the other departments. How you came up with that would be tricky."

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