Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (also known as the LVMPD or Metro) is the joint city-county police force for Clark County in Nevada. It is run by the sheriff, who is the Police Chief of Las Vegas and the Sheriff of Clark County, elected every four years. The sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer within the county.
Metro is the largest police department in the state of Nevada.
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[edit] List Of Clark County Sheriffs
- Charles Corkhill 1909-1911
- Sam Gay 1911-1931
- Will Mundy 1917 (served when Sam Gay was removed from office)
- Jay Warren Woodard 1917 (served when Sam Gay was removed from office)
- Joe Keate 1931-1936
- Bill Mott 1936-1937
- Gene Ward 1937-1943
- Glen C. Jones 1943-1955
- Butch Leypoldt 1955-1961
- Ralph Lamb 1961-1979
- John McCarthy 1979-1983
- John Moran 1983-1995
- Jerry Keller 1995-2003
- Bill Young 2003-2007
- Doug Gillespie 2007-
[edit] Funding
The Department is funded by the City of Las Vegas and Clark County. Funding is based on a complex formula that includes population, calls for service, and felony crimes in the prior year. Both governments must approve the annual budget including their percentage of budget. Additionally the department self generates approximately 33% of its funds through property tax, and the charging for certain services, such as special events, work cards, and privileged license investigations. Additional funding is generated from a special sales tax to fund commissioned positions.
[edit] History
Metro was formed on July 1, 1973 by merging the city's Las Vegas Police Department with the Clark County Sheriff's Department. This resulted when the Clark County Sheriff's Department patrolled only the unincorporated areas of Clark County, thus no contract cities, and Clark County refusing to allow Las Vegas to annex Paradise, which includes the Las Vegas Strip. The concern of Las Vegas annexing Paradise would result in decrease of revenues for Clark County. Metro serves the city limits of Las Vegas and the unincorporated areas of Clark County.
In 1999, an outside audit, commissioned by the City of Las Vegas and conducted by DMG-Maximus, commended the department for having fewer managers and supervisors than are normally found in large police agencies. The audit also said that the managers, both sworn and civilian, were of "excellent quality." The auditors found that the recruitment and selection program was "among the best we have encountered in recent years." Although the City had planned to commission a second phase of the study, DMG-Maximus auditors said they were so impressed with the department that further study was unnecessary, saving the City $180,000 that had been allocated for the audit.
Currently, Metro has over 5,000 members. Of these 5,000 individuals, 2,400 are police officers and 600 are corrections officers.
LVMPD currently operates on a conventional radio system, which was upgraded in 2000.
In 2006, Sergeant Henry Prendes became the first Metro officer in 18 years to be murdered in the line of duty.
[edit] Organization
Major patrol responsibilities are covered by bike patrols, motorcycle units and patrol cars assigned to the following units:
The LVMPD is divided into seven area commands:
- Bolden (Sectors U and W) - serves the west central portion of the city, including the old westside, an area bordered by I-15, US-95, Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard.
- Downtown (Sectors A, B and C)
- Northeast (Sectors F and G) - Sector F includes unincorporated areas of North Las Vegas.
- Northwest (Sectors V and X)
- Southeast (Sectors H, J and K) - Sector J includes unincorporated areas of Henderson.
- Southwest (Sectors O, P, R and S)- this area serves mostly the southwest valley west of I-15 and south of Sahara Avenue.
- South Central (Sectors I, M and N) This area command serves the Las Vegas Strip and areas south of McCarran Airport between Interstate 15 and roughly Eastern Avenue.
Other major coverage details:
- Transportation Safety (Traffic) (All Sectors)
- Airport (Sector Q)
- nine different rural areas outside the Las Vegas Valley including:
- Laughlin (Area 81)
- Searchlight (Area 82)
- Jean-Goodsprings (Area 83)
- Blue Diamond-Sloan (Area 84)
- Mount Charleston (Area 85)
- Indian Springs (Area 86)
- Logandale-Overton (Area 87)
- Moapa Valley-Glendale (Area 88)
- Riverside-Bunkerville (Area 89)
[edit] Enforcement areas
This department provides law enforcement services for all of Clark County, including the City of Las Vegas, yielding primary jurisdiction to the following agencies:
- Boulder City Police Department in Boulder City
- Community College of Southern Nevada Police Department Formed in 2005
- Clark County Park Police in all Clark County parks
- Clark County School District Police Department on Clark County School District property
- Henderson Police Department in Henderson
- City of Las Vegas Court Marshals which deliver warrants in the City of Las Vegas
- City of Las Vegas Deputy City Marshals which provide enforcement activities on public property, primarily city property
- Mesquite Police Department in Mesquite
- Nellis Air Force Base in North Las Vegas
- Nevada Highway Patrol is responsible for the interstate highways and state highways in Clark County
- North Las Vegas Police Department in North Las Vegas
- Paiute Tribal Police on the two Paiute Indian reservations
- UNLV Police Services on University of Nevada, Las Vegas campuses and sports facilities. Formed in 1972
- Various government agencies like the BLM or the National Park Service provide law enforcement services for other federally owned land in the county.
[edit] Specialized Units
- Air Support
- Clark County Detention Center (commonly known as "CCDC" by officers)
- Communications Bureau
- Crime Stoppers - (702) 385-5555
- Crimes Against Youth, Family Bureau
- Criminalistics Bureau
- Domestic Violence
- Employment Diversity, Office of
- Financial - Property Crimes Bureau
- Fingerprint Bureau
- Firearms Investigative Unit
- Gang Crimes Bureau
- General Services Bureau
- Homeland Security Bureau
- Information Technologies Bureau
- Internal Affairs, Office of
- K-9 (1959)
- Metro Volunteer Program
- Missing Persons
- Mounted police
- Personnel Bureau
- Quality Assurance, Office of
- Records Bureau
- Robbery Homicide Bureau
- Search and Rescue Unit
- Special Events Office
- Support Services Bureau
- SWAT
- Tourist Safety
- Training Bureau
- Transportation Safety Bureau
- Vice & Narcotics Bureau
- Violent Crimes Detail
[edit] Training
LVMPD runs their own training academy based in the Northwest area command headquarters. Graduates of the Southern Desert Regional Police Academy, or any other academy, are required to also take the departments course if they wish to join the LVMPD. The department also runs an academy for corrections officers.
[edit] Las Vegas Police in fiction
- The Gaunlet (1977)
- Vega$ (1978-1981)
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000- )
- Oceans Eleven (2001) features a scene where the casino Daniel Ocean's men are robbing, calls in the SWAT team, but the officers are in fact the robbers dressed up as SWAT officers in an elaborate scheme to remove the money from the bank vault.
- In the TV series Las Vegas, Metro has frequent appearances.
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
