More Cops tax to bulk up local police forces

The More Cops sales tax increase that the Clark County Commission approved Tuesday will bolster the ranks of local police departments.

It will bring more than 150 police officers to communities throughout the county, including officers hired by the Metropolitan, North Las Vegas and Henderson police departments.

Much of the attention during a two-year effort to get the sales tax increase passed has focused on Metro, which gets the bulk of the revenue and is the largest agency, serving the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of the county.

The 0.05-percentage point increase will boost the sales tax rate from 8.1 percent to 8.15 percent. It will start on Jan. 1, 2016, pumping an estimated $19 million annually toward those police departments, as well as Mesquite and Boulder City.

But there won't be more cops hitting the streets on New Year's Day. The bulk of new hires will start toward the end of 2016 or early 2017, a factor driven by the length of time it takes to hire and train officers.

The North Las Vegas Police Department will be able to hire at least eight additional officers, said officer Aaron Patty, a department spokesman.

The department has about 260 officers to serve the third most populous city in the county. The new officers will do patrol work.

"It's a small number that's a significant number," Patty said, stressing that the increase will help the department deal with the volume of calls it receives.

Metro will put its revenue toward 133 new police officers, who will be hired and trained by the end of 2016. Metro now has about 2,600 officers.

The 330-officer Henderson Police Department will gain more than a dozen officers for the second biggest city in the county.

The tentative plan is for 15 new officers to be hired in time for the February 2016 academy, said police spokeswoman Michelle French.

It takes about 40 weeks for Henderson officers to be trained. That includes a 21-week police academy, a 5-week advanced academy and 14 weeks of field training.

The benefit of the More Cops sales tax increase is different for the Mesquite Police Department, which won't be able to put the increase toward any additional officers.

The revenue the department will get, roughly $140,000 annually, will help sustain the size of the department's force. But Mesquite's existing More Cops account, funded from a prior sales tax increase, is in the red.

The account has funded seven officers since 2008, a significant number for the 27-officer department that serves the small city about 81 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Those plans came while the economy was booming.

"When they initially hired, everything was going great," said Chief Troy Tanner, who wasn't the chief at the time.

Then the recession hit, reducing sales tax revenue.

Boulder City police officials were unavailable for comment last week.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1