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StumbleGillespie: Detective won’t see quick return to streets
Metro Sheriff Doug Gillespie discusses the coroner’s inquest into the shooting of 21-year-old Trevon Cole and changes his department will make during an appearance Monday evening on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston.”
Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010 | 1:50 a.m.
Sheriff Doug Gillespie on "Face to Face"
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- Interview with Metro Police Sheriff Doug Gillespie begins at 4:40 in the first video.
Former state assemblyman Wendell Williams protests with members of community action group A League of Action in front of the Regional Justice Center before a coroner's inquest on the death of Trevon Cole on Friday, Aug. 20, 2010.
Sun Archives
- Sheriff says inquest shows Metro’s transparency (8-21-10)
- Woman says fiance had his hands up when shot by police (8-20-10)
- Vegas police study policy after drug raid slaying (8-4-10)
- Metro identifies officer involved in fatal apartment shooting (6-14-10)
- One person killed in Metro officer-involved shooting (6-11-10)
A coroner’s jury found a Metro Police detective was justified in fatally shooting a man at his Las Vegas apartment, but Detective Brian Yant’s boss said Monday he isn’t ready to send him back into the field anytime soon.
"He is not going to be back on the streets until I'm convinced he's ready to go back to the streets," Gillespie said. "I've got an internal investigation that now has to take place."
During a television interview on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" on KSNV-TV, Gillespie admitted mistakes but stopped short of saying whether he thinks Yant is guilty of wrongdoing in the June 11 shooting that fatally wounded 21-year-old Trevon Cole, who was unarmed when he was shot.
"As there's a process for the inquest, there's a process for me to deal with issues internally," Gillespie said.
During the live interview Monday evening, Gillespie admitted mistakes were made leading up to the shooting of Cole. He noted the inaccurate criminal history about Cole that was submitted in an affidavit and a lack of preparation in executing a narcotics search warrant at Cole’s apartment at 2850 E. Bonanza Road.
"There were mistakes made and that was glaringly evident during the inquest process," he said.
Gillespie pointed to his decision to take the narcotics unit off executing forced-entry search warrants. SWAT officers are handling those search warrants until further review by the department.
The inquest process itself has come under question, with critics challenging whether inquest jurors receive enough instructions and whether victims' family members should be allowed to participate beyond submitting written questions for witnesses on the stand.
Wendell Williams, who runs a group called A League of Action, which is pressing for changes to the inquest process, said there's no single solution to improve the process.
Instead, Williams said law enforcement, community leaders and citizens should discuss how to revamp the process.
"The longer (Gillespie) runs from that reality, we're going to keep having these problems," Williams said, saying his group is not fighting against the police department itself, but the inquest process.
A joint meeting might be in the works. After A League of Action members protested outside Metro headquarters Monday morning, Williams said Gillespie called the group wanting to coordinate an Aug. 31 meeting.
On "Face to Face," Gillespie reiterated that the coroner's inquest is a fact-finding process, not a trial.
"The inquest process is there to determine criminal intent," he said. "And I think, at times, we want it to do more than that."
In the meantime, the District Attorney's office is preparing for the next coroner's inquest, into the July 10 fatal shooting of 38-year-old Erik Scott at the Summerlin Costco store.
"I believe when this inquest takes place, the testimony of these three officers will be crucial," said Gillespie, referring to the three officers who fired their weapons. "We have three officers that chose to use deadly force -- not one, but three seeing the same level of threat."
When pressed about Costco’s video recordings, Gillespie said Metro investigators haven’t seen tapes because of a glitch in Costco’s cameras. Metro sent the computer hard drives to an off-site expert to review them and try to extract footage.
Gillespie said his department is making changes -- and is willing to make even more -- based on fallout from these recent cases. He also pointed to changes in Metro driving policies following three fatal crashes last year involving officers.
"Change in some respects doesn't come as fast as people would like, but you just can't have a knee-jerk reaction to it," he said. "If you're going to change the processes, they have to be legitimate and they have to be well-thought out."
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gee doug thanks
what a farse and a shame ... what a way to appease the situation put him behind a desk...he shot that kid in the face...was he innocent ? no but did he deserve to die in his bathroom over a few grams of weed ?? Jesus ... these guys better calm down...all across the country hostage situations fair better without a single shot being fired....what the hell...train your men doug..get a frigggen grip ... people are losing respect for what we once looked to for protection by honorable just & stand up men...now we the citizens have to endure another sham of an inquest w/the scott case...how are they going to justify this tell me how ?? its absolutely jaw dropping ... but i
don't think the scott family will go away so easy...u will now see how money & education makes a grave difference and that is truly sad to say ... but that's what we corporate america have become !
"Change in some respects doesn't come as fast as people would like, but you just can't have a knee-jerk reaction to it," he said. "If you're going to change the processes, they have to be legitimate and they have to be well-thought out."
How many years do we have to endure your nonaction till it's no longer a "knee-jerk"? We're tired of people being murdered by your boys, tired of paying for wrecked crusers, tired of burying poorly trained officers, tired of paying off your law suits and certainly tired of being afraid of the people we are paying to protect us. The one common denominator is you.
if its not the police making mistakes its the fire fighters getting paid too much. who is supervising these people?
Well, I guess you know where Metro is going with the Erik Scott Inquest.
"We have three officers that chose to use deadly force -- not one, but three seeing the same level of threat."
Case closed.
Next?
didn't doug had a relation with a lady in his department didn't he had a incident at his house with a gun that went. COVERUP. we need fbi come in and start cleaning house. we need to vote him out this november
let see if we get same thing for mr. scott family.
Spending this kind of manpower on a small time dealer of marijuana to adults when other violent or more serious crimes go un-investigated is poor management.
1. Investigate whether the reality show had anything to do with this.
2. Were they after money to confiscate to increase the general fund?
3. Why are they going after the small time marijuana dealers when we still haven't dealt with all the realtors that committed massive fraud 2005-2008?
All that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. If you want to do something, if you really care and want to make our community better, here is a way to do it. Write a letter, make a phone call, and express your outrage. Send your letters to this man Thomas E. Perez Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20530 phone(202)514-4609 fax:(202)514-0293 If you truly care and want to do something for the Cole family and get them justice, write to Mr. Perez.
Just check out the website for the Department of Justice. How about the Minneapolis cop who is facing federal charges for beating up a kid? Yep, Attorney General. How about the deputy sheriff in Choctaw County OK who will spend 18 months in a federal prison for beating up some inmates? Yep, right again, Attorney General. How about the two police officers in Tuba City Arizona, who have been indicted for violating Civil rights of a suspect, one for beating him, and his supervisor for not stopping it? Right again, the Attorney General. How about the two New Orleans cops who are facing life in a federal prison, for you guessed it, civil rights violations. One more time, Attorney General. All of these have been announced since July 29, 2010. How do you think the Attorney General found out about those cases?
If you don't believe me follow the link.
http://www.justice.gov/crt/
I don't think that Cole family will go away quickly either. Too many errors in warrant, execution, etc. No attorney will settle. Carrillo family won't go away either. Officers continued pursuit after being ordered 3 times to stop. Resulting accident caused by officers killed Carrillo. Can you say jackpot? Since the police union didn't want to take pay cuts to balance the county budget, will they take pay cuts to satisfy the multi-million dollar judgements that are coming?
@NewBee: Gillespie can't afford to alienate the special interest group with the greatest vested interest in keeping the inquest process alive: the Metro Police Protective Association. Also, taxpayers shouldn't be forced the to pay any court-ordered civil damages arising from the misconduct of Metro's officers. Those damages should be paid from the budget of the organization responsible for the damages: Metro.
Shooting drug dealers instead of giving them a pat on the back and sending them back on the streets?
Works for me!
pmmart,
Life is very simplistic, isn't it? What else works for you lately?
BYE BYE DOUG !!!
@pmmart. Let's see, Cole sold 1.8 ounces of marijuana to Yant's partner between April 25 and June 3, at least according to Yant's search warrant affidavit. A real big time dealer, not. He deserved to be arrested, charged, and tried. Without a prior record, he probably would have done little if any time. None of the individual sales was over an ounce. Not sure that selling that much marijuana is a capital offense. Yant has been judge, jury, and executioner for two suspects, including Cole. How do you feel about paying the multi million dollar judgements from Yant, Ubbens and Carpenter, and the officers in the Scott case. What county services should be cut even further to pay those judgements? Since the Metro has opposed pay cuts to help reduce the county budget deficit, how do they feel about pay cuts to pay judgements caused by their members?
@pmmart. How do you explain the comment by Det. Michael Boone during the inquest. He recalled Yant saying "the subject of the search warrant had no violent priors and that it wasn't a high-risk oriented warrant."
Isn't it funny that video seems to be the enemy of Metro while other police forces embrace it?
Gibbons tapes were fixed in the parking garage, we all saw that. It rained that night and of course the footage of the garage had no water at all.
Then of course the Costco footage has not been seen... anyone out there believe that?
And I will ask again, why is Metro one of the only police forces in the USA that does not install dash cams??
Yant made so many mistakes it's unbelievable he's a trained cop. Which leads me to believe he made the "mistakes" on purpose. So far he has gotten away with homicide. However, one day he will have to atone for his actions, oh yes, he will be judged alright.
This Yant may very well lose his job or be put behind a desk for the rest of his career (or until he leaves the police dept and gets a job as a security guard someplace where he can carry his gun). This officer should NOT be out on the street any longer. As I said the other day, he has discharged his weapon THREE times, hitting and/or killing two out of the three times. I am very pro police but Gillespie and the Internal Affairs Div ought to read the writing on the wall with this jerk. He shouldn't be a cop any longer.
An incident happened in Chicago before I moved to Vegas. I hope I can remember all the details. Cops chased a car (without approval), car stopped, front seat passenger had a shiny metal object in hand, female officer shot and killed passenger. Turns out it was a cell phone. Cops involved were fired for instituting a chase without supervisor approval and the obvious. Female cop testified she thought that the passenger had a weapon. And I seem to remember this couple wasn't who the Cops thought they were; a very similar description went out looking for an African American couple wanted for robbery or something and were driving a very similar car. Point: Trigger happy cops everywhere and this guy Yant should be fired.
@Det_Munch: Yant would not have a job in virtually every other law enforcement agency in the country. Frankly, many departments would have taken him off the streets after his last shooting, when his testimony at that inquest contradicted the physical evidence.
There is a huge problem at Metro and it goes beyond "safe driving" or having SWAT teams conduct raid. It's about integrity and accountability.
didn't Yant say Cole was in a shooting stance but the bullet that hit him in the head had a downward trajectory?
three officers decided to use deadly force against Scott or did one officer get jumpy and all three discharged there weapons?
changes in the driving policy? how many times have you been passed by a cop while you are driving the speed limit and they're on the phone/computer without the emergency lights on?
It seems to me that the fundamental problem is that when Metro arrives on a scene they seem to escalate a situation instead of diffusing it.
How does confronting a man with a holstered concealed weapon in a crowd make anyone safer?
When did the safety of citizens become outweighed by the safety of police officers? Is shoot first ask questions later the new standard? Is it justifiable? Is it excusable?
Being a police officer is a risky job, they knew that when they signed up. If they can't handle the pressure then do us all a favor and find a new line of work.
It is time for the Justice Department to step in and start a criminal investigation of Yant. He HAS CLEARLY violated several federal laws without a doubt. If anybody in the miltary like me did what Yant did, especially law enforcement personnel, they would be court martialed. Gillespie needs to be removed from office. He does not have to courage to get rid of Yant. There must be some reason why Metro is bending themeselves backwards to protect a very corrupt and rogue detective. MARK MY WORDS, THE FBI KNOWS ABOUT THIS AND SO DOES THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. I am quite certain an investigation into civil rights violations is around corner.
The recruits are young and do not fully know how to conduct themselves. They lack the maturity and wisdom that can only come from many years on the job. They don't know how to relate properly with the community. Nothing can be done about this aspect of the job. There was and will always be moments when these young officers will not know what is truly dangerous and what can be diffused. You will never read about older and wiser officers caught up in these situations. Staring at a computer while driving all day doesn't help matters either. On average the job is very boring and the bulk of the uniform is a constant source of irritation.
All that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. If you want to do something, if you really care and want to make our community better, here is a way to do it. Write a letter, make a phone call, and express your outrage. Send your letters to this man Thomas E. Perez Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20530 phone(202)514-4609 fax:(202)514-0293 If you truly care and want to do something for the Cole family and get them justice, write to Mr. Perez.
Just check out the website for the Department of Justice. How about the Minneapolis cop who is facing federal charges for beating up a kid? Yep, Attorney General. How about the deputy sheriff in Choctaw County OK who will spend 18 months in a federal prison for beating up some inmates? Yep, right again, Attorney General. How about the two police officers in Tuba City Arizona, who have been indicted for violating Civil rights of a suspect, one for beating him, and his supervisor for not stopping it? Right again, the Attorney General. How about the two New Orleans cops who are facing life in a federal prison, for you guessed it, civil rights violations. One more time, Attorney General. All of these have been announced since July 29, 2010. How do you think the Attorney General found out about those cases? To paraphrase the theme from Cops, what you gonna go when the feds come for you?
If you don't believe me follow the link.
http://www.justice.gov/crt/
It is not bad enough these cops get paid $150,000 per year, ADD lawsuits such as will come from this killer and his cost will run multiples of that.
De-criminalize drugs and studies show the U.S. will save a minimun of 77 billion dollars each year.
OR WE CAN JUST KILL ALL THE POT SMOKERS
"The inquest process is there to determine criminal intent," he said. "And I think, at times, we want it to do more than that."
Damn right we do. Intent does not need to be shown for an act to be criminal.
Any officer who fires his weapon should automatically be charged with manslaughter or attempted manslaughter and have a special prosecutor assigned. If a regular court and jury clears the officer, then fine.
The inquest system, as it exists here, is badly broken.
I think Officer Yant should see a very quick return to the streets. Unemployed.
+++++
Beware GESTAPO 911.
oh calcutta! you make too much sense so it wont happen. our politicians eat too much but think even less. look at angle, for example, a complete waste and these are the morons that they shove down our throats.
Any officer who fires a weapon, for any reason, should have a mandatory drug test, especially for any steroid use. "Roid-rage" is empidemic among police officers, yet they are NEVER tested.
Las Vegas Sun, thanks for not burying this story. Jon Ralston of Face to Face, great interview. Mr. Gillespie, sure the inquest is not a trial, but how do we get to trail when the inquest is stacked against just that?
By allowing family members to ask questions and make comments during inquests sure would bring much more decency to the whole process, at the very least the family members voices would be heard. A little bit of compassion goes a long way.
I was glad to hear Gillespie say that they were not going to be raiding non-violent perps homes anymore, which is exactly what needlessly brought about Trevon's death.
My hats off to Wendell Williams, and the members of A League of Action for all they are trying to do.
Any death by/of an officer must be investigated by an ouside, independent, transparent, professional team. Without this team there will always be groups in the community that have no faith - nor will they work with the police department.
Any Chief that is tone-deaf to the community needs to be replaced. Any Police Union that does not encourage transparency should not be dealt with during contract negotiation. Even if that means totally re-structuring the department.
ohcalcutagirl makes no sense at all!
Where do you get your figures?
A Police Officer I makes less than $40,000 a year.. and it sure as h*ll doesn't approach anywhere near $150,000 after many years of service.
Since you are so in favor of legalizing drugs, why don't you put your pipe down and check your facts first.
I make more sitting at a desk pushing paper and not having to deal with all the bs.
If you don't like the way Metro does things.. why don't all of you run for office and try to push Gillespie out.. oh that's right, because you're chicken sh*t, and can sit behind your computers and judge everything they do instead.
I am so SICK of our Tax Dollars going to pay these lawsuits!!! If they did nothing wrong then how are these officers being found guilty in civil court ALL THE TIME!!!
How about we change the system. Make it that EVERY POLICE OFFICER has to aquire malpractice insurance to be an officer which would be used to pay any lawsuits. If an officer cant get insured due to prior negligence than guess what, HE WONT BE ALLOWED TO BE AN OFFICER. This should help weed out the incompetant officers like YANT. Just think about this... I would love to get some feed back regarding this IDEA. So if anyone would like to further elaborate, please do. thanx
does Yant have a record of pulling his gun?
Is this the first instance with this guy?
Seems to me its time to get Gillespie out.
Metro does seem to have some major problems going on.
Tanker is right, its time to take action.
These government workers need to know they work for the citizens, and they answer to the citizens.
lv1: You sound like a hypocrite who is doing all the judging. Are you a cop?
judgy wudgy was a bear.. judgy wudgy had no hair.. blah blah blah
what does my line of work have to do with anything.. but just to appease you.. No i am not.. are u?
he shouldnt be back on the streets ever, like most metro cops they shouldnt be on the streets at all just for being arrogant and abusive of their power.
PO1 starts at a little over $51k and with overtime there are plenty of officers making well into 6 figures. Just sayin...
FYI........According to Channel 8 Clark County Salary Tracker, Yant made $103,305.66 in 2009.
http://www2.8newsnow.com/salaries/search...
"Also, taxpayers shouldn't be forced the to pay any court-ordered civil damages arising from the misconduct of Metro's officers. Those damages should be paid from the budget of the organization responsible for the damages: Metro."
SummerlinCC, just where do believe money for Metro's budget comes from? It's certainly not a tree behind headquarters.
Askarii:
Thanks for posting the link for salaries.....
that should get everyones blood boiling and blood pressure through the roof...
Disgusting, no one is worth what these people are making.....
It would be really hard to be a cop anywhere, but expecially Las Vegas. It seems to live up to its name....Sin City. It is sad that people get killed; murderers, dope dealers, rapeist, theives, cops, innocent bystanders. this is the world we live in. I'm sure the police officer feels terrible. The familys greive over their loses. The police know when there is a bad cop. let them handle the invesigations. Most of the comments are hateful towards the police. Why not praise their work and duty towards this community. Sometimes they make a mistake. They are only human. Lets hear three cheers for the police of Clark County. Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray. God bless the people who serve others.
Yant is a liar and a danger to the public. Talk about "knee jerk reaction", anytime Yant feels threatened he starts shooting. Gillespie, you need to weed out these bad apples. We, the public want to be protected, but not "from" the police. As far as the three officers shooting at Costco, lets be real, when I was in Vietnam, once one soldier started shooting we all started shooting. The same thing occured here, and all three will be lying through their teeth.
johnniek, that cop, if he felt terrible over shooting an unarmed man, and be it his third shooting, he would have quit by now. if the cops knew they had a bad egg, metro pd would be going thru a hiring frenzy right now. 75% of my contact with metro has been nothing but bad and resulted in calls to IA. im thru with these metro cops and their arrogant attitudes. im not even a criminal and i get treated like some pile of trash that killed their dog.
never in my life have i ever met such an arrogant police department. time to stop covering everything up, and make your cops accountable for everything they do. notice, none of our local pd's have cameras in their cars? i wonder why...because they dont wanna be cought treating the public like crap.
sheriff says: "no more raids on non- violent perps homes".
questions is: why where they being done to begin with?
fact is: raiding any structure increases risk to all involved.
much goes on in the dark of a big city. more so when we CHOOSE to avert our eyes.
Look at this mess closely. pull this weed by the root.
lv1: I am active duty military. I am not going to trash you no matter what you do for a living. But all I am saying is the writing is on the wall. Yant is a corrupt, rogue police detective who should have his badge taken away at the very least.
The Metro budget is part of the Clark County Budget. The County Commission approves their budget, just like all the county budgets. If I remember correctly, the Police union didn't want to make salary concessions to help balance the deficit this year. I don't know if they are self insured or not, but suspect that they will be huge damage awards in the next several years. Those awards come from taxpayer money if they are self-insured, and if they can still get insurance, those premiums will go sky high.
@riotact: I think you missed my point. The civil damages incurred by Metro won't be borne out of Metro's existing budget. Taxpayers will be asked to pay the millions of dollars in damages to pay for the misconduct of a few Metro officers. I think the funds should be taken out of Metro's existing budget. So if Metro's existing budget is $549.2M and the More Cops program has a reserve of $143M, then the let's use that money to pay for the civil suits. It's all taxpayer money, but why should Metro sit on a $143M reserve and then make the taxpayers pay additional monies when an officer has found liable of wrongdoing at a civil trial?
How about "We all don't show up at the polls to "VOTE" Not one person! What would all the candidates who want to get re-elected, and the new ones elected do? Unfortunately we have no one good to vote for. I too fear that the Scott case will have the same ending as the Cole case.
@Suzzie, We need to vote. Sometimes the choice is the lesser of 2 evils. But change is good and we can't do any worse than we have now.
It was reported that the air force detective and Trevon Cole had 60+ phone calls even though the cops only bought four small quantities of marijuana from him.
Subpoena the voice recordings of those calls. I am very interested to see how much the cops goaded Cole into expanding his business. I especially want to know if they convinced him to advertise selling pot on Craigs List.
I'm sorry. The police should be made to have cameras in their cars, also microphones on their persons that can be recorded to play back after a shooting or any crime. I thought most police forces had this type of equipment. Is Clark County run like a communist state with no oversite? The police need to be praised when they do good, but should face the same type of investigation you or I would face when there is doubt. We need to know the truth.
"We have three officers that chose to use deadly force - not one, but three seeing the same level of threat."
Either a blatant lie, or totally ignorant statement from an incompetent, unfit sheriff who has no control over his renegade force and no clue about professional police work.
It's known as "contagious shooting" sheriff; one cop fires, who like Yant is a known, trigger-happy liability who has killed before, and the rookies blindly follow his lead.
Gillespie needs to be replaced, and the feds need to come in and clean up this disgrace of a police department.
Please write to Thomas Perez at the Department of Justice as Tanker 1975 has urged and complain. The address is in Tanker's post above. It's the only way to get professionalism back in Metro, bring these renegade cops to justice, and restore the dignity of and respect for the many decent, dedicated Metro officers that they deserve.
SummerlinCC, I didn't miss your point. You mistated it, and now you have corrected that mistatement.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it's SOP for public service entities to have monies allotted within their budgets for civil actions. In any event, it's the taxpayer that loses, not the LVMPD - which you seem to wish to severely punish.
riotact, i dont even think metro has an SOP consideirng how wild they are
All that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. If you want to do something, if you really care and want to make our community better, here is a way to do it. Write a letter, make a phone call, and express your outrage. Send your letters to this man Thomas E. Perez Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20530 phone(202)514-4609 fax:(202)514-0293 If you truly care and want to do something for the Cole family and get them justice, write to Mr. Perez.
Just check out the website for the Department of Justice. How about the Minneapolis cop who is facing federal charges for beating up a kid? Yep, Attorney General. How about the deputy sheriff in Choctaw County OK who will spend 18 months in a federal prison for beating up some inmates? Yep, right again, Attorney General. How about the two police officers in Tuba City Arizona, who have been indicted for violating Civil rights of a suspect, one for beating him, and his supervisor for not stopping it? Right again, the Attorney General. How about the two New Orleans cops who are facing life in a federal prison, for you guessed it, civil rights violations. One more time, Attorney General. How about the two Natchez Mississippi police officer who were indicted for civil rights violations for beating two people who had been arrested? Yep, Attorney General again. All of these have been announced since July 29, 2010. How do you think the Attorney General found out about those cases? To paraphrase the theme from Cops, what you gonna go when the feds come for you?
If you don't believe me follow the link.
http://www.justice.gov/crt/
DOJ just announced indictment of two Natchez Mississippi police officers for civil rights violations. Seems DOJ doesn't like cops beating up people they arrest. It may take some time, but it does work people. What have we got to loose? The worse that can happen is Metro keeps shooting people. But think of what happens if it works.
Part of the problem is that while Gillespie is telling the media and public that "we can't circle the wagons", he's telling his officers that he's "not losing any sleep over" the criticism of Metro-
http://www.youtube.com/user/ANewSheriffI...
The more letters they get, the more likely they are to start investigating. Don't forget your Nevada Representative and Senators. Yeah, I know. The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is Rep John Conyers (D MI). He was instrumental in getting DOJ to investigate a bad shooting in Detroit when there was a TV crew involved. Sound familar? The Chairman of the Senate Judicary Committee is Sen Patrick Leahy (D VT). Send them a letter to, addresses are online.
I just want to post again from Askarri:
FYI........According to Channel 8 Clark County Salary Tracker, Yant made $103,305.66 in 2009.
http://www2.8newsnow.com/salaries/search......
Thanks for that Askarri.
Its time to vote out everyone, this is disgusting. The salaries of these public servants is sickening.
so whats wrong with a cop, lets forget about how much i hate metro pd and im gonna speak from a different angle here.
whats wrong with any public servant police officer making 108k a year anywhere. police do put their lives on the line and in some places make less than 50k a year! i dont have problems with their salaries based on the job itself.
i have problems when we pay them anything at all and they treat the general public like crap
I wonder if the sheriff loses his bid for reelection how many people will lose sleep over that. And he does care what people say or he would not give interviews right I mean that's why he does it isn't, And I don't think that all officers are as bad as some make them out to be but lets face it if the good ones are in such abundance why are they not speaking up about this or are they victims if they speak up they wont get back up and if they are then you deserve the black eye that you get! You want more respect then cast out those that bring you shame!
@riotact: I don't want to "punish" LVMPD. On the contrary, I want to see Metro become a great law enforcement organization. I want to see Metro recruit top quality, mature officers. I want those officers to be well-trained and apply their training to real-life situations. I want Metro to be willing to engage acknowledge when mistakes are made, so that the same mistakes aren't repeated in the future. I want Metro to establish a culture where officers know that lying will have consequences.
Unfortunately, it does not currently look like the LVMPD has the intestinal fortitude internally to make this happen. When a governmental organization shows that it is unwilling or unable to adopt changes internally, the only alternative is to create and apply public pressure to serve as a catalyst for organizational change. Believe it or not, I don't enjoy pointing out Metro's errors. For the most part, the errors and crimes are being committed by a minority of Metro's officers. I still believe that the vast majority of Metro officers are good cops that do their job. But when the organizational leadership of Metro allows the bad officers to continue unchecked, there is little alternative than to apply public pressure to the organization.
@lv1
Bryan Yant: Pay for 2009
Metro Police
Base Pay: $79,067.10
Ovetime: $10,904.84
Other: $13,333.72
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TOTAL: $103,305.66
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lv1 asked:
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ohcalcutagirl makes no sense at all!
Where do you get your figures? --- From this website lv1
http://www2.8newsnow.com/salaries/search...
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"A Police Officer I makes less than $40,000 a year.. and it sure as h*ll doesn't approach anywhere near $150,000 after many years of service."
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The statement above, gives the DIRECT impression that you are a cop. It does say "A police officer "I" makes less than $40,000 a year.
So, why lie when someone else ask you if you are a cop? You said it, they didn't.
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"Since you are so in favor of legalizing drugs, why don't you put your pipe down and check your facts first."
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Instead of insulting someone, why not get YOUR facts straight?
Seems like the facts are straight, what do you have to say about these figures? They are lying? They are misinformed? What? Before jumping on someone, make sure, as I said before - GET YOUR FACT STRAIGHT! Maybe put down your pipe and get out of the evidence room where drugs are laying around to freely, and go research and stop trying to sound like you know something. Stay behind your desk, because as a cop, I can see you wouldn't do well on the streets, just as Yant!
Oh and you might want to see why he makes more than you do after so many years of service from you. I mean he has only been there since September 2001. Because over 100k per year is a lot more then your 40k.
Have a good evening!
@Greco: "You will never read about older and wiser officers caught up in these situations." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand Yant to be a 10 year veteran. And for Yant to say he was doing his job when he killed Cole, a penny-ante pot dealer? I am a Boomer; I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to find someone my age who hasn't at least tried pot --- including (2) Presidents of the United States --- do we also deserve to die? And the comment was made the other night by one of the Metro apologists that Cole agreed to get a weapon for them; but he didn't, did he? And what's this about one of the buyers being an Air Force cop?
Yant is a ten year veteran with who joined the force in 2001, and was involved in a fatal shooting in Nov 2001, during his first year with Metro. He had another shooting between Nov 2001 and Cole. That suspect survived. The buyer in all sales was Det Christopher Cannon(second officer in Suave Lopez case?) In addition to Yant's assault team, there were 4 Air Force Detectives to ask about possible sales at Nellis. The film crew was supposed to be there but couldn't make it. In Yant's first shooting, the Richard Brown case, there was a question about the location of Brown's gun. Yant said it was by the body, but no other officers saw it, and a gun was later found 30 FEET from the body. Nobody could explain how the gun got there. Yant was the only witness to the shooting.
As public employees, all police and firefighters, and teachers pay is a matter of public record.
@Tanker1975: If I remember correctly, you are a Vietnam veteran USMC; am I right about people our age having experience with pot? Thai sticks? Any number of other potions? Some of these folks make it sound like pot is the Devil's doing, like Cole deserved to die for any involvement with it; I turned out o.k.; you seem to have turned out o.k.. Clinton surely inhaled, and he had access to the button. I guess what I'm asking is why the fixation with a penny-ante pot dealer, with home invasions, armed robberies, gangs, etc., etc., etc.?
And I have to agree with SummerlinCC: Gillespie doesn't run Metro, the union president does. Gillespie likes that job too much to antagonize 3,000 union members, their spouses, live-ins, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, etc., who all vote. Have you ever seen the Humphrey Bogart movie "The Caine Mutiny"? To me, that is a large number of Metro & Metro-affiliated. "It's not us, yea, that's it, it's everyone else, they're against us because we're by the book, yea, that's it".
Actually West Point, actually I am one of the rare few of our age that has never used any illegal substances. But use was very common, and most of us turned out pretty well. He**, I remember when the drinking age was 18. The issue is not pot use, but the out of control metro officers and the leadership problems in Metro. I think that I may be a little qualified to talk about leadership. I went to a pretty good leadership school.
"I don't want to "punish" (sic) LVMPD"
Could've fooled me, SummerlinCC.
@riotact: Metro better get used to the scrutiny. It's going to continue until the LVMPB takes serious steps to get its' personnel under control. Putting "safe driving" stickers on cruisers isn't going to cut it.
Saw a story on Channel 5 last night that the Civil Rights Division and lawyers for "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio from Maricopa County Az are in negotiations to try to prevent a civil rights investigation. Metro needs to be worried.
@Lovebug - in your response above to lv1, I believe you misread what he/she was saying. Metro has Police Officer I as a job classification and Police Officer II as a classification. I think he was talking about the classification of Police Officer I and not that he/she was a police officer. You can look at the Metro website to verify what I'm saying and they also give the starting salaries for each classification.
"I guess what I'm asking is why the fixation with a penny-ante pot dealer, with home invasions, armed robberies, gangs, etc., etc., etc.? "
Because nomorepc, that is what the NARCOTICS detectives are assigned to investigate.
Gang detectives investigate gangs, Robbery detectives investigate home invasions and robberies, etc. etc.
When too many officers try to investigate the same crimes, they end up doing the same work, often going after the same suspect, and interviewing the same witnesses, thus wasting time and money.
@Devildog
Do you think those robbery detectives would mind investigating the Trevon Cole home invasion?
@MikeT - Turn the spin cycle down. It wasn't a home invasion.
Any civil awards for a METRO shooting will be paid for by Clark County's insurance company after Clark County pays the deductabile just like your car insurance. But like having a drunk driving charge, those insurance policy premiums tend to go up after a large settlement.
@DevilDog: I'm not that stupid, and you shouldn't be that much of a smartass; everyone here knows the different departments. If you had thought about it for a minute before trying to turn it around on me, you would have realized that I was asking in a roundabout way why we need so many narcotics detectives if a penny-ante (2) joint dealer is the best they can do; either get the big guys supplying Cole and the other street corner dealers or transfer somebody to robbery or gangs, where we actually have a problem. Oh yeah, a gang member might actually shoot back at Yant.
I find it amazing Metro ever asks for the public's help on anything. Why would anyone help these people? All they do is abuse the community.
Why do we need internal investigations and keep cops off the street if the shooting was "justified" ? Do you mean storming the residence of a 1 ounce weed dealer and executing him might not be "justified" ? Good thing we have no more urgent crimes to worry about in Vegas than an ounce of weed.
Gillespie needs to go, he has no control over the situation. LVMPD needs to stop shooting unarmed suspects. The "furtive move" excuse gets a bit old.
@bubbalv - yes the shooting was justified and normally the officer would be allowed to return to duty almost immediately. However, in this case there are many unanswered questions regarding policy violations that need to be anwered. Once the internal investigation is complete, Yant might have been justified, but he could still find himself unemployed.
We all knew what the outcome of the inquest was going to be so,why even have one.Detective Yant has been in three shootings two of them ended in death.It's obvious this cop is out of control considering most cops go through an entire career without firing a single shot and somehow Yant manages to get involved in three shootings two of them in a span of two years.
Yes they think we are stupid
It's clear that the inquest is to protect rogue cops and prevent multi million dollar law suits against the city for wrongful death.
I wonder if the Erik Scott inquest is going to be any diffrent
Here is a solution, FIRE ALL COPS
re-hire those that will work for the national average 50K , that is 1/3 of what we pay these fools now AND THAT IS BEFORE WE PAY FOR THE NEXT LAWSUIT which will bring this Dick to around 3/4 million per year. GOD , what a good deal we have
I personally don't have a problem with the salaries at Metro (though I do think they should have been subject to the same budget cuts as other city/county depts) as they do a difficult and dangerouse job. The salaries are in line with other busy metropolitan areas. As a taxpayer, I do however have a huge problem paying a good salary for an officer that has shown lack of integrity, character, and ability to do his job. Any employee, public or private, deserves to lose their job for such gross negligence and poor job performance. I also have a problem as a taxpayer in funding the generous salaries of Metro top brass who fail to do their jobs as managers and supervisors. I hold management responsible for these problems, not so much the cops on the street, most of which are doing a good job.
Remember, the Sheriff is an elected official, a politician, and does not answer to anyone like a police chief or fire chief who can be fired. If the public truley wants change, they need to vote.
I think they ought to move miles away from hiring ex-military to be cops. This is NOT a third world country where you shoot first and let God work it out.
Metro stands around 23.5 hours a day and shoots the other .5 They do little if any real police work. The laws are selectively enforced with the default to hassle homeless people. To even get these people to wear their seat belts takes a major effort. Too many unfit idiots down at Metro.
@Askarii: Amen to that. This all stems from a few problem children in Metro that the leadership is unwilling to weed out. Metro just needs to recruit good people, train them well, instill integrity and discipline as organizational values, reward the good cops and deal aggressively with the bad cops.
Hope the officers do not lose their jobs. I do not want them on the PD in my town.
@Kray and Askarii. Don't forget the taxpayers footing the bill for the multi-million dollar wrongful death suits that we all know are coming. The Inquest only deals with criminality, it does nothing for the civil trial. The "ice cream lady" shooting in Henderson was justified and Henderson paid her family $750,000. The burden of proof for a civil case is much less, only a preponderance of the evidence. Yant, Ubbens and Carpenter, and possibly the officers in the Scott case have made enough mistakes that I doubt very much that they will settle out of court, unless the settlement is close to what they could get in open court.
New story in the RJ today about Yant --- you have to read this one!
I've got $100 that says lawyers will now start working on overturning every case Yant, Goris, and the entire Metro narcotics unit ever touched. The stuff is about to hit the fan.
And the hits just keep on coming. Funny how we haven't heard from the Metro supporters yet.
The Caucasian crowd is starting to view the police as the ethnic crowd mostly always has. This is funny, except for the dead people that the valley police officers leave in their wake.