Las Vegas police making some changes for protest procedures, sheriff says

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Wednesday that the Metropolitan Police Department has changed tactics for dealing with protester cases.

Now, he said, the officer who makes an arrest will also write the corresponding report and “tag” body camera footage to ensure prosecutors have the documentation they need.

The changes have occurred since protests in June, he said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thousands gathered in downtown Las Vegas during the demonstrations to oppose President Donald Trump’s administration and its immigration policies.

While there were over 100 arrests, the Las Vegas city attorney’s office decided not to prosecute 90 of those protesters, a decision that McMahill said upset many officers.

“I also had to take a really hard look at why, because they have a responsibility to go in and prosecute these cases,” he said. “And when a body camera (video) is not attached to this case or the person that wrote the declaration of arrest for the individual that we’ve arrested is not the same officer who grabbed them, they have a feeling that they can’t win those cases.”

Stephen Stubbs, an attorney who has represented protesters, said Metro appears to have used almost boilerplate reports for the June protesters.

“I always welcome governments making appropriate changes to protect constitutional rights,” said Stubbs. “I really hope that is what’s happening here, because it hasn’t happened in the past.”

Athar Haseebullah, director of the ACLU of Nevada, said previous changes have not amounted to much.

Protest dispersal orders can still be inaudible and the department has attempted to charge “exorbitant” fees to access body camera footage, he said.

The fact that prosecutions against many protesters did not proceed “really demonstrated the cases didn’t have a ton of merit,” he said.

Sheriff: Supports protests, but not throwing things at officers

Asked for a written copy of the new rules, Metro spokesperson Jamie Ioos said that while procedures have changed, the department is working on rewriting its actual protester policy.

McMahill said the city attorney’s office has considered refiling five cases after police reviewed body camera footage to find video “that we could attach to a particular individual.”

City spokesperson Jace Radke acknowledged requests for comment but did not provide comment Wednesday.

Police have handled 188 protests so far in 2025, McMahill said, each requiring preparation even if nothing ultimately happens at them.

The sheriff said he supports people’s right to protest. “But I don’t support throwing rocks and bottles and batteries and things at my police officers and assaulting my police officers,” he said.

“I’m not going to stand for a wholesale dismissal of these cases when my officers have been assaulted,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

Some critical of officers’ conduct

While Metro has said protesters behaved violently, some have also criticized the conduct of officers.

In a viral video, officers could be seen arresting Karlin Martinez and Cesar Corrales in downtown Las Vegas after Corrales said “Honor your oath, b----” to officers. Police initially walked past the two and only made the arrests after the comment.

Legal experts said the arrests were clearly retaliatory.

McMahill said some internal affairs investigations were “sustained” against officers from the June protester cases, including the incident with Martinez and Corrales.

The sheriff confirmed that Sgt. Fred Oliveri, who appears to have ordered those arrests, “was under investigation,” but would not say against whom the investigation was sustained or whether there was any punishment.

That an investigation is sustained means the department thought there was a policy violation and established that a violation occurred, he said.

“I don’t think that the cooler heads prevailed in that particular incident,” said McMahill.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.