Metro turns 50: From rumors of fistfights at merger to a world-class agency

By Teresa Moss

Monday, July 17, 2023 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Las Vegas Police Department merged on July 1, 1973, to create Metro Police Department — and the rumors of the fistfights that ensued between the two agencies have been passed through the generations since.

Did the fights happen in those early days? While discussed, a definitive answer wasn’t revealed during a panel discussion last week at the Mob Museum to celebrate the agency’s 50-year anniversary.

Larry Ketzenberger, who started with the Las Vegas Police Department in January 1960, was on an eight-person committee that created the merger plan. He had heard of the fistfights happening but never saw any himself.

The committee was developed after the Nevada Legislature had requested the two departments create a plan on how they could efficiently work together on certain issues such as record-keeping and sharing.

Policing complications had started to become apparent as the region grew, Ketzenberger said. This included residents having difficulty knowing which department had jurisdiction and needed to be called during emergencies.

Criminals also were taking advantage of the divided forces. They would cross back and forth between the jurisdictions to make investigations more difficult.

“There was a lot of anxiety and a lot of suspicion from both sides,” Ketzenberger said about the first committee meetings. “We didn’t know who was trying to do what. It took us about three to four meetings weekly for us to settle down.”

The committee decided that neither department would trust the other fully if they remained divided.

“The only way could do this would be to merge so both sides would have the same interest in doing a good job,” Ketzenberger said.

Rocky start

The plan to merge was brought before the 1973 legislative session and was passed nearly intact, he said.

The first few years were difficult, mostly on the financial side, he said.

“We didn’t have enough money to take care of everything that was planned,” Ketzenberger said. “That’s a big mistake we made. We did not get extra funding for a new agency.”

This included the creation of new uniforms, purchasing vehicles and the cost of standardized weapons for what essentially was a new police force.

Ketzenberger estimates Metro was about $700,000 short of funding the first year.

“We ended up having less people on the streets than we should have because we didn’t have enough money,” he said.

The money issues were worked out by about the third year of Metro’s existence, he said.

As for those rumored fistfights, Ketzenberger said, if they happened, they happened quietly and were resolved among the men, he said.

“Within three months of consolidation they were working together as a team,” he said.

Former Sheriff Jerry Keller joined the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in 1969, about four years prior to the merger. He worked in the forensic laboratory at the time and found the merger was accepted among the people withwhom he worked.

“The crime lab already worked closely with the city lab so our merger was more of a problem of geography,” he said.

Keller said he also heard the rumors of fistfights in the hallways of the patrol station.

“I never saw one,” Keller said. “I never knew anyone that was in one. I thought they were rumors.”

The consolidation helped the region invest in programs that advanced Metro, including technology for fingerprinting and a new communications facility, Keller said. Other police departments from around the world sent officers to visit and learn from Metro and its advancements, he said.

Taking care of officers

As the decades passed, Metro started to develop programs focused on the people in the department and those in the community they served.

In 1984, prior to being sheriff, Keller started the Police Employee Assistance Program, known as PEAP.

“We discovered 80% of the complaints came against 5% of the employees,” Keller said. “I started looking back at these employees’ behavior, profiling types of arrest. We had one officer who had 60 resisting arrests in 90 shifts. Something was going on with him. We later determined he was using drugs.”

With more research, it was learned that a lot of public complaints lodged against officers involved officers who were facing issues outside of work, such as divorce or maybe being tired from building a house.

“We believed if we address the behaviors before the misconduct occurs, we can affect use of force,” Keller said. “Use of force is necessary but excessive use of force is always not a good thing.”

Keller joked other names were considered for the unit, including the Police Officers Outreach Program.

“But that was POOP,” Keller said. “We would have been POOP.”

Another was the Policing is Serious Stuff.

“Piss,” Keller laughed.

While Keller joked, he also told the audience the PEAP unit has faced serious issues and made a significant difference on policing in the community.

“We reduced use-of-force incidents by 80% in the first year by addressing those issues,” he said.

It wasn’t easy, Keller said. His team was harassed, and rumors were created about them.

“Cops were supposed to be rough and tough,” he said.

If officers wanted to talk to a therapist after a shooting or working a tragic event, they had to open up the phone book, Keller said. The department wasn’t providing any real services.

“I’ve yet to meet a police officer who was glad they shot somebody,” Keller said.

PEAP became a safe place for officers to find resources to help with any issue happening within their lives, Keller said. That could even include options for officer’s children struggling in school or with drugs.

Greg McCurdy, a former Metro assistant sheriff, found himself leading multiple new efforts for the department during his 30 years of service. This included recruitment efforts for a more diverse department, serving as the department’s first public information officer and enhancing strategies for the department’s gang unit.

During the late ’80s and early ’90s McCurdy worked as a gang intelligence sergeant, helping to develop what became some of the first community outreach programs for Metro.

The first course of action was to define a gang member to Metro, he said. It resulted in Metro developing a criteria and software system like one being used by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“This was a time when there a lot of people mistakenly identified as gang members simply because they lived in target neighborhoods,” McCurdy said. “We had to do better. We were placing young people in juvenile detention who didn’t belong there. They needed other services.”

Ultimately, a substation was built at Gerson Park and community programs were developed as ways for the department to be more actively involved.

“It was our first community policing,” McCurdy said. “Some of those young men and women became police officers because of that.”

Growing region

When Metro started in 1973 the department served 319,400 residents with 1,000 employees, according to agency data. The department now serves a jurisdiction with 1.6 million residents and 40 million tourists per year with 6,000 employees.

In 1973 there were 100,000 calls for service a year. Metro now averages 1.4 million calls annually.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill applauded those who started Metro for their foresight to make the position of sheriff elected and not appointed.

“There are other agencies that are merged but they all have an appointed chief or appointed individual over that agency,” McMahill said. “The truth is, I answer to all of you. When we had to deal with riots or 1 October, all of the things that we’ve had to deal with over the years, the sheriff is ultimately responsible to the people of the community. The mayor doesn’t get to tell the sheriff what to do. The City Council doesn’t get to tell the sheriff what to do.”

McMahill said other police departments such as Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Chicago have struggled because they have appointed positions.

“Everybody except the chief runs the department,” McMahill said. “Everybody has something to say except the professional who did the job through all these years.”

Metro Police has become a premier law enforcement agency throughout the 50 years partly because of the wisdom of the men who created it in 1973, he said.

“Both agencies were exceptional agencies,” McMahill said and with a laugh he added. “I’ve also heard the same stories about the fistfights. I thought it was all true.”