Las Vegas sheriff backs police union against NFL facial recognition policy

After a Las Vegas police union said it won’t comply with the NFL’s new leaguewide facial recognition policy that’s coming to Allegiant Stadium, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said he has “contingency plans in place” to keep football games safe.

The policy would require Metropolitan Police Department officers who work overtime hours as security at Raiders games to share their photo for facial recognition purposes. The Las Vegas Police Protective Association is urging officers to think twice before complying.

The expansion of the new credentialing system to stadiums hosting all 32 teams in the league follows a pilot program at six stadiums, Tim Schlittner, director of communications for the NFL, previously said.

But in the event that the NFL holds steady in its negotiations with the union, McMahill said that “it is absolutely an individual officer’s decision” as to whether or not they want to continue working Raiders games.

Steve Grammas, president of the union, previously told the Review-Journal that he worries the biometric data collected by the NFL — specifically photos of officers — might get into the hands of “anti-cop” people who could then “target and harass officers.”

While the NFL offered to destroy biometric data at the end of the season in a Zoom meeting with Grammas and Metro staff Aug. 23, McMahill said the main issue that keeps cropping up is that third-party vendors of the NFL would have access to the data.

McMahill said he doesn’t want biometric data in the hands of unknown third parties who could “do whatever they want with it.”

As police continue to negotiate with the NFL, officers have been using a wristband system that was in place before the new facial recognition policy as they worked security for preseason games, according to the sheriff.

McMahill said that he doesn’t necessarily have a “main concern” with the new policy and that his “personal perspective is that that stuff’s been in place for a while anyway, and they probably already have everybody’s photographs anyway.”

However,

The sheriff said that the safety of the community is his priority, as “these NFL games that we have are always a target for individuals to cause some kind of chaos.”

Officers in Las Vegas have an abundance of experience working special events, McMahill said, adding that at any given time there may be as many as one thousand officers working overtime on the Strip for special events.

The sheriff also said that Metro “pulled the Super Bowl off I think as safe as anybody has ever pulled it off.”

In the event that the union and the NFL remain at an impasse, McMahill said he has “contingency plans in place to make sure that we have that football game staffed.” However, he said he’s “not going to say what they are at this point.”

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.