Las Vegas police report 57% drop in recruits in 2020

Las Vegas police last year saw fewer than half the recruits they saw in 2019, according to department statistics, and many other local police departments showed a similar trend.

The Metropolitan Police Department enrolled 101 recruits into its three police academies held last year, representing a 57 percent decrease from 2019, when 237 recruits were enrolled.

During a monthly livestream hosted by the department, Metro Capt. Hector Cintron discussed the recent drop in recruitment. He attributed it to George Floyd’s murder, which prompted lawmakers to take a closer look at use of force nationwide.

“Police training and tactics have been put under the spotlight as well,” Cintron said. “Agencies faced cuts in spending, increased scrutiny and demoralized police forces around the country. As a result, fewer people signed up to be officers.”

Metro saw its most recent recruiting spike in 2017, when 486 recruits entered the academy. Since then, the department has seen a steady annual decline resulting in last year’s numbers.

Nevada Highway Patrol data showed a steady decline since 2016, and Henderson data showed that one-third fewer people applied to be officers in 2020.

Henderson showed a slight increase in hiring data, from 17 officers in 2019 to 30 officers in 2020. The department declined to comment on the increase, but the city announced plans last year to open a new substation in west Henderson.

In North Las Vegas, police saw a slight increase in recruits last year after a decline in 2018 and 2019. The department’s most recent peak came in 2017, when 41 people applied to be North Las Vegas officers.

The Highway Patrol and North Las Vegas police both declined to comment on recent numbers.

Targeting demographics

During a recent dinner event, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told the Sheriff’s Asian Advisory Council that the department targets specific demographics when recruiting officers so the force can better reflect the racial makeup of Las Vegas.

“Our recruitment efforts are specific. We go by the percentage of population within Clark County,” he said. “When we see a gap in that percentage with our employee base, that’s the recruiting effort we direct our focus to.”

Metro’s 2020 annual report showed that 58 percent of all its employees were white, compared with 42 percent of the total Clark County population reported in the most recent census. Less than 20 percent of employees were Hispanic, compared with 32 percent of Clark County. The percentages of Black, Asian American and Native American employees within the department were also below county averages reported in the census.

On Tuesday, Metro graduated 81 new officers from its academy, an event that was livestreamed on Facebook. The class began with 99 recruits and took seven months to complete due to a quarantine period amid the pandemic.

During the event, Lombardo acknowledged officers’ conduct nationwide during last summer’s protests.

“It’s no secret the way we handled the protests associated with George Floyd — and all the rhetoric and attitude towards law enforcement in recent months, and probably in the last couple years — has caused us problems within the ranks of law enforcement,” Lombardo said. “We had a different attitude here in Las Vegas, and my attitude towards the troops and the troops’ attitudes toward the community — each and every one of you — is just as important as the person standing out there with a sign calling us racist pigs. And we weren’t going to tolerate it.”

Between May 29 and Oct. 2, 240 people were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges related to local protests against police brutality and racism. Nearly all saw their charges dropped, but four were still facing charges in Las Vegas Justice Court as of May 21.

Retirements on the rise

Cintron said there has been an uptick in nationwide retirements and poor attrition rates because of heightened scrutiny of policing last year.

“Across the nation, we’ve seen record numbers of people retire early or just leave because they don’t feel supported by their communities,” he said during Metro’s livestream.

Metro experienced a 37 percent increase in retirements in 2020, but those within the department attributed it to the large number of officers hired in the 1990s who were eligible for retirement last year.

“If an anti-police environment were driving separations, we would expect to see a large number of separations with years of service insufficient to retire,” Metro spokesman Larry Hadfield said in an email earlier this year. “So far, we have not seen that.”

Undersheriff Kevin McMahill retired last year after 28 years on the force, and noted in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that his graduating class had more than 100 people, compared to classes before his that had about 25.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.