EDITORIAL: Public safety must be priority for Las Vegas, Clark County

Call it more more cops.

Metro Police is proposing an increase of $10 million in its next budget, money it wants to use to hire more police officers, dispatchers and crime-scene analysts.

If you're scratching your head and wondering, "Didn't the county just vote for a sales tax increase to hire more police officers?" don't worry that your memory is slipping. The county commission did exactly that.

But the department says the $10 million would restore it to the level of funding it enjoyed in the 2009-10 fiscal year, and keep pace with an increase in population so that there will be 1.86 officers per 1,000 residents.

The police department is jointly funded by Clark County and the city of Las Vegas, with the costs split proportionally. Any increase would come out of local government coffers.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he doubted there was money available to fund the request, which is ironic, considering his was the loudest voice against a sales tax increase to hire more cops for months before he finally agreed to a compromise.

But at the very least, Mr. Sisolak's comments get to the heart of the matter. Public safety is without question the No. 1 priority of local governments. If people aren't safe in Las Vegas, then the tourism-based economy we've built here is jeopardized, to say nothing of the needs of residents. Elected leaders need to understand this when building their budgets.

And Metro Police needs to understand that public safety is the end goal, not reaching some arbitrary number on a spreadsheet, or ratio of cops to citizens. Sheriff Joe Lombardo and his subordinates need to justify each and every position they want to hire to the full satisfaction of the city and the county as necessary to actually reduce crime. Only then should an increase be approved.

But if that showing is made, city and county leaders need to stop making excuses and start shuffling resources. No other program in city or county budgets is as important as keeping people safe.

The county, for example, could take us up on a suggestion we made in September and eliminate its Park Police department, using the savings to increase the Metro Police budget. The city, to name another, could reverse Mayor Carolyn Goodman's ill-considered creation of a "Department of Youth Development and Social Innovation," since those functions properly belong to other government agencies. And that's just the beginning.

There's no doubt $10 million is a lot of money, even in the much-larger budgets of Clark County and Las Vegas. But if Metro's leaders can show the money is really needed, it must be found, without excuses. Las Vegas has more riding on its reputation for safety than most cities, and it simply cannot be neglected.