As Metro shootings drop and traffic deaths remain stubbornly high, sheriff discusses goals for 2026
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said he hopes a recent decline in police shootings will continue into 2026.
To sustain that trend, he plans to expand the Metropolitan Police Department’s reality-based training center and open it to all of the other local law enforcement agencies.
“That way, we’re not only cross-training with the fire department, but we’re cross-training with every other police department in the valley, and ensuring that, as we find ourselves in these situations where deadly force has been used, we try to find alternate outcomes to that and then train it into our officers,” McMahill said.
In February, Metro announced that one of the department’s key objectives was to cut officer-involved shootings — 17 in 2024 — by half. In 2025, the department reported seven incidents in which officers used deadly force during critical situations.
In both 2023 and 2021, the department reported 10 officer-involved shootings, and nine in 2020.
The sheriff attributed the drop in police shootings not only to revamped training, but also to the work of the department’s new Wellness Bureau.
“With this job, you have to see things and hear things and feel things and smell things, and, quite frankly, do things that most other normal human beings don’t have to. And that impacts our officers,” McMahill said. “But, I think (the Wellness Bureau) is really changing the culture.”
The Wellness Bureau staffs licensed clinicians and offers a range of services, including individual counseling, to Metro personnel. McMahill said that approximately 450 people — officers, their spouses and relatives, and recently retired Metro officers — use the bureau’s services each month.
‘As we move forward’
Looking ahead, McMahill said that although Senate Bill 415 — a proposal he supported this year to install traffic-enforcement cameras in crash‑prone areas — failed to pass, he remains committed to the project. In 2026, he said, he will pursue a more limited pilot program using speed-control cameras.
Also, at February’s State of the Department address, Metro aimed to lower the number of people who die in crashes in Metro’s jurisdiction. At the time, Undersheriff Andrew Walsh noted that the department issued about 80,000 traffic citations in 2023 and 120,000 in 2024.
In 2025, the department issued about 170,000 citations. By mid-December, there were 157 traffic-related fatalities in Metro’s jurisdiction – a figure just three short of where the department finished last year.
In a year-end interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, McMahill emphasized that traffic enforcement cameras “really do work” and could play a crucial role in reducing traffic fatalities in 2026.
He said he has driven in other parts of the country where traffic cameras are used, which prompted him to pay closer attention to the drivers around him.
“What I saw was that nobody ran a red light,” McMahill said. “Everybody slowed down.”
Last month, Metro also announced it would partner with other law enforcement agencies in the valley to form a traffic task force and reduce road fatalities.
The initiative would employ a “data-driven deployment of resources,” targeting specific locations — dangerous intersections and major roadways with frequent crashes — through increased patrols and visibility.
“What I believe is that we’re going to continue to focus on that traffic fatality number and do something about it as we move forward,” McMahill said.
Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.
