Residents, police celebrate 20 years and counting for Bolden Area Command

More than 600 people joined Las Vegas police Thursday in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Bolden Area Command and the legacy of its namesake, the late Larry C. Bolden, whose drive amid controversy led him to become the city’s first Black police sergeant and deputy chief during his 32 years on the force.

Stella Lake Street outside the two-story police station was turned into a Halloween-themed block party, lined with the open hatches of SUVs in a Trunk-or-Treat candy event for kids strolling in costumes. That followed a parade march of uniformed police, bagpipe-playing Honor Guard, the Bonanza High School marching band and vehicles from fire and rescue, bomb squad, city marshals, K-9 and other public safety units.

But it was beyond merely a passing commemoration of a building.

Clark County Sheriff-elect Kevin McMahill, who took part in the ceremony, said that the last two decades have been a journey for both the police and the Historic Westside community, and building up trust and a relationship is a long process.

“We took what used to be identified as the worst part of town for gang violence, for homicides, for drug activity, for prostitution activity and turned it into one of the safest area commands in the entire city,” he said. “And that came from investing in each other as human beings, and what you see tonight is part of that investment.”

Bolden station today organizes about 100 Westside community get-togethers a year. Officers serve as coaches, and mentors, for Black youths on station-sponsored little league baseball teams and the Bolden Lions soccer program. Last year, Bolden assisted 20 high-risk youths in the area in attending college.

At the conclusion of the parade Thursday evening, current and former officers, joined by Westside-based Ward 5 City Councilman Cedric Crear, took turns on a stage to describe the station’s successes in the lives of local residents.

“I’ve seen this community come a long, long way,” said retired police Capt. Pat Neville, who worked at the station when it opened in 2002, while pointing toward buildings and other improvements across the street. “I used to look out of that office and that was a desert. I used to hear gunshots from this parking lot. It has changed, and you know the reason it’s changed? It’s been the great officers you have who work this area command, but it’s also because the community comes together. The community holds this place together.”

Larry Bolden grew up in Searchlight, a friend of future U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. Bolden joined Las Vegas city police in 1959. He once said that back then, Blacks could expect to serve only as patrol officers. But he stayed ambitious and became the department’s first Black sergeant in 1965.

In 1970, he took the written exam for a promotion to captain, but hit a snag. After he passed it, some of his fellow officers accused him of cheating. Reid stepped up to defend Bolden during hearings before a civil service board. Still, the board refused to promote him.

Bolden appealed, and a District Court judge ruled in his favor — three years later — forcing the department to make him captain, with back pay. He rose in 1979 to be the first African American deputy chief in Las Vegas history.

Bolden’s daughter, Carol Peterson, now a 55-year-old resident of Washington D.C., took part in Thursday’s ceremony. She recalls as a girl the hardship her father endured waiting to be cleared of the cheating allegations. But he had no resentment about it. He even ended up supervising some of his accusers, and told them he would start off with a clean slate, an attitude that was part of his character, she said.

“I think had he been bitter, this building would not be here, named after him,” Peterson said. “I just don’t think if he had negative relationships with the city leadership that they would have embraced building and naming a substation after him.”

“I think the main word I would describe my father is humility,” she said. “He instilled in my brother and I — he didn’t see black and white. He saw good, he said, and he saw bad. And that’s how you treat people, definitely with respect.”

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 561-324-6421. Follow @JHuntB on Twitter.