LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill will deliver the State of the Department address on Wednesday morning.
The address took place on Wednesday morning at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, where Sheriff McMahill addressed his fellow officers and civilian workers in the department about his plans for the department.
"We have to recognize that we're in this fight together to make this community a better place for everyone," he said.
In his address, Sheriff McMahill discussed "investing" in police officers and department employees by expanding department benefits to help inspire them to also "invest" in the community — especially in neighborhoods with high crime rates.
Sheriff McMahill continued, "When I think about policing, I continually think about all the things we do over and over again — I think about these neighborhoods that we call "problem neighborhoods" and "persistent hot spots." I was hired in 1990, and we're still talking about those neighborhoods. Some really good cops have gone through those neighborhoods and tried to do some good work, but the outcome is largely the same. But as I was challenging my staff the other day, I realized that we do have a lot of good examples of areas where the outcome is not the same — and those neighborhoods have changed for the better."
"I don't believe mental health, addiction and homelessness are things we can't be more efficient at," he said. "And incarceration doesn't fix mental health, addiction or homelessness."
In his address, Sheriff McMahill also addressed the recent killing of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers, as well as the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
"We need to inject humanity into our policing approach to the community. Kneeling on a man's neck for nine minutes is not humanity," he said. "There's no humanity in the beating death of Tyre Nichols."
He continued, "One thing we forget in the national conversation around policing is how police officers of color are impacted. Policing is difficult as it is, but police officers of color have an even bigger challenge."
Sheriff McMahill discussed his commitment to collaborating with state lawmakers to enact reforms in police procedures and policies, both in the past and the present. "We made policy changes, we made mistakes and we made more policy changes."
Some of those reforms, he said, would have to come in the form of better hiring practices and staff retention. One example he pointed to was LVMPD Dispatch, where he says hiring "is down 50%."
"The two biggest issues I heard about consistently was that no one can get through to 311 and traffic is out of control in this city," he said. "When I went down to dispatch, there was a nearly 2-hour wait to get through to 311."
Sheriff McMahill also cited technology advancements, in addition to hiring practices, as a way the department was committed to helping employees and officers manage their workloads.
"We continue to use this technology to do things we were never able to do previously," he said.
In closing, Sheriff McMahill reiterated his support of increasing benefits for department personnel, something he believes will have a positive effect on the community.
"Cops matter. Civilians in this organization matter. We're going to take care of you in ways that we never have before. And we're going to take care of this community in ways that we never have before."
