Retired Henderson police chief, remembered for advancing department, dies

Retired Henderson police Chief Michael Mayberry has died, the department announced on Sunday.

Mayberry joined the force as a part-time reserve officer in 1976, becoming a full-time patrol officer two years later. He served as chief of the department for five years beginning in 2000, according to Review-Journal archives.

“He will be greatly missed and leaves behind a legacy,” Henderson police said in a Facebook post.

Mayberry’s family said he died on Sunday, but they did not disclose how he died.

In an 2005 interview, Mayberry, then 52, said he was retiring because of a longtime heart condition.

At the time, Henderson was considered one of the most advanced departments in the state, with the only technology that could determine a cellphone caller’s location.

“Police Agencies from all over the World came to Henderson to view our operations, review our policies and procedures, and seek council on how to properly police a community,” Mayberry wrote on his LinkedIn page.

Retired officer Jesse Lujan, who joined Henderson police in 1997 and worked for SWAT from 2000-2013, credited Mayberry with listening to officers’ request and changing the SWAT team’s name from Special Response Team to SWAT during his tenure as chief. He also got the team its first armored vehicle and introduced computer maps department-wide.

“Chief Mayberry was always the kind of chief that knew everybody’s name,” Lujan wrote in a message to the Review-Journal. “One time one of the guys on the department got into a motorcycle accident. I went and saw him in the hospital because he was a friend of mine. When I got there he was so surprised that chief Mayberry had actually taken the time to go and visit him in the hospital. He made everybody feel like they were part of the family.”

Mayberry said at the time of his retirement that he wanted to play guitar in a blues band for his next chapter in life.

Instead, he would spend 12 more years as the master of ceremonies for the Nevada Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Carson City. In 2017, Mayberry handed the position over to retired Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Rich Fletcher, who still oversees the annual ceremony.

“He told me to always speak from the heart, and he really got me through that process,” Fletcher said, recalling his first time overseeing the ceremony. “A lot of what I still do is based on the notes he sent me when I took over.”

Fletcher, who started with Metro in 1993, said he never saw Mayberry get angry.

“Every time I dealt with him, as a junior officer or on a committee, I would always see him smiling,” Fletcher said. “We would go to lunch to talk about upcoming ceremony. He was just a nice guy.”

Mayberry attempted to run for mayor of Henderson in 2009, but ultimately endorsed Andy Hafen in the race. In 2011, Mayberry ran for Ward 4 City Council, but lost to Sam Bateman.

Mayberry’s Twitter page said he was born and raised in Las Vegas, graduating from Bishop Gorman High School and UNLV. His biography said he was married with four children.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the date of Mayberry’s death.

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