North Las Vegas to receive funding for police

By Erin Dostal

Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010 | 4:07 p.m.

The city of North Las Vegas will receive about $5.3 million from a federal fund to help the police department avoid layoffs.

The North Las Vegas Police Department would have likely have had to lay off 16 police officers by Jan. 1, 2011, if the fund had not been secured, said police spokesman Tim Bedwell.

“We’re not going to hire anybody,” Bedwell said. “It’s all to stave off reduction.”

Senator Harry Reid announced that Nevada would receive $5.7 as part of the Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program, or COPS hiring program. The program is managed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Senator Reid has supported this program from its inception and worked to expand the program to allow Nevada law enforcement to hire additional officers,” Reid’s office said in a statement. The program began in 1994, officials said.

Acting North Las Vegas Police Chief Joe Chronister thanked Reid in a statement, saying that without the money, North Las Vegas would’ve had to reduced the number of officers patrolling city streets.

The rest of the $5.7 million allocated to the state will go to the Shoshone Tribe, which will receive $155,815 and Temoak Western Shoshone Las Enforcement Public Safety, which will receive $189,121 to hire officers, Bedwell said.

Since the beginning of the economic downturn, no police officers in North Las Vegas have been laid off, Bedwell said. In June, 188 other city employees lost their jobs because of budget reductions.

Both the police and fire unions in North Las Vegas are in ongoing talks with the city about budget reductions, officials said. According to the city’s website, North Las Vegas will have to cut about $42 million from its budget during the next fiscal year.