Police Groups Backing Sheriff Lombardo for Nevada Call on Anti-Gun Group Pull Anti-Cop Ads
By Brittany Sheehan | 5:30 PM on October 15, 2022
On Friday, two law enforcement groups, the Public Safety Alliance of Nevada and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, called on the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety to pull down their political ads.
Ads targeting Nevada’s Republican Gubernatorial Candidate, Sheriff Joe Lombardo have been criticized by law enforcement groups for their anti-police rhetoric and misinformation that risk public safety.
These statements come on the heels of a police officer who was fatally shot while on duty Thursday in Las Vegas. Officer Truong Thai, 49, was fatally shot in the chest while responding to a domestic disturbance call. He had been with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department since 1999. The suspect was arrested and had a prior gun charge and is accused of firing 18 rounds. Last month, another LVMPD officer was non-fatally shot while on duty.
One of Everytown’s ads tells the public that Lombardo has disbanded the domestic violence unit.
In a statement, Officer John Abel, Director of Governmental Affairs at the Las Vegas Police Protective Association said,
“The ad accuses Sheriff Lombardo of removing resources for domestic violence victims. That is blatantly false. It deeply concerns me that a current victim of domestic violence could see that and mistakenly believe that there is no way to get help through LVMPD.”
The reorganization of the domestic violence unit has been considered a success at LVMPD, increasing timeliness and follow-up while giving more resources to officers at area commands. The gang unit was never disbanded but decentralized so gang intelligence could share intel with patrol units and all substations shared the responsibility for dealing with gang-related activities. In 2017, with a rise in violent crime attributed to California’s gangs in the Las Vegas area, Sheriff Lombardo reconstituted the gang unit to focus on the core issue of violent crime.
As Sheriff, Joe Lombardo supported Marcy’s Law, a constitutional amendment twice passed in the legislature and approved by Nevada voters in 2018. The amendment guarantees rights to victims of violent crime. Lombardo is specifically listed on the Marcy’s Law website as an advocate.
LVMPD is a massive police agency, the 7th largest in the nation. Their website lists 45 departments. The agency focuses on community policing, with over a dozen programs and partnerships. Transparency is another theme of law enforcement in Clark County, mandatory press conferences are held to address the press and public within 3 days of any officer-involved shooting.
In 2020, under Sheriff Lombardo, the department overhauled its use of force policies, with input from the ACLU, NAACP, academic studies, and assessments from other police departments. De-escalation and Duty to Intervene (stopping any officer from using inappropriate force) were given elevated importance, and additional guidance was included to address breathing issues; assigning an officer to monitor breathing and implementing breathing recovery positions.
Last year, homicides increased in at least nine major cities. Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said police departments across the nation solve an average of 64% of homicides. As of Jan. 1, 2022, the Las Vegas police solvability rate for 2021 homicides was 91%.
I love that about LVMPD. I know they are gonna’ catch whoever did it, and the community sees it happen in real-time. When a local journalist, Jeff German, was found murdered in September, arrested a sitting public official and an incumbent Governor Sisolak (D) appointee, Robert Telles (D) in mere days. During LVMPD’s announcement, Captain of the Homicide Bureau Dori Koren said,
“We are very fortunate in Las Vegas. We have the best homicide unit in the country with the highest solvability rate in the country. They worked tirelessly, as the Sheriff pointed out, to succeed in this case.”
When a convicted pipe-bomb murderer escaped prison, under another Sisolak appointee’s oversight at the Nevada Department of Corrections, nobody was alerted for four days. Even with a four-day head start, LVMPD with the help of the community (a theme here) located and captured the escaped inmate right before he attempted to flee on a bus to Mexico.
Community members frequently get to celebrate these successes. We are rooting for our law enforcement officers. Las Vegas is a gambling town but when crime does happen, we bet on our police department– with good odds, too.
Meet Joe! @JoeLombardoNV with @NikkiHaley addresses crowd about the capture of an escaped prison fugitive in Nevada.
And, Nevadans finally get to celebrate it properly! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/vUx6wLZ9Ft
— BrutalBrittany💕 (@BrutalBrittany2) September 30, 2022