Clark County sheriff gets national honor
The National Sheriffs’ Association have given Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie their 2014 Sheriff of the Year honor.
Gillespie beat out 3,079 sheriffs in the country and will be the 19th sheriff to receive the Ferris E. Lucas Award for Sheriff of the Year since its establishment in 1995.
Gillespie worked with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for 27 years before being elected to sheriff in 2007. He leads more than 4,700 officers and is responsible for the safety of nearly 2 million Las Vegas residents.
During his tenure, Gillespie implemented a new use-of-force policy that stresses deescalation in confrontations and placed several divisions of the intelligence-gathering Fusion Center under one roof to maximize efficiency.
Of his contributions to the police department, Gillespie was honored in part for saving millions of taxpayer dollars by “cutting back throughout the agency to avoid layoffs,” according to the association.
Ross Mirmelstein headed the committee responsible for filtering through nominations and selecting a winner for the prestigious award.
“Based on what he has done for the office of sheriff and for the NSA,” Mirmelstein said, “Sheriff Gillespie was the most deserving.”
Gillespie will receive his award at the 2014 NSA Annual Conference June 22 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Contact reporter Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0391.
