New North Las Vegas police chief aspires to connect with community

North Las Vegas is a city in need of a change.

After all of the negative media attention, it's also in need of someone with a hopeful outlook.

Newly appointed North Las Vegas Police Chief Alexander Perez is optimistic about the future of the city and believes that the police department plays a key role in building bridges with the community to ultimately create a safer city.

"What captivated me about the field of law enforcement was how much of a service we can provide to our community," Perez said. "I grew up here, and my parents met in North Las Vegas. My focus is to establish a better relationship with the community."

Perez was sworn in by the North Las Vegas City Council on May 20 after serving with the department for 24 years.

He graduated from Eldorado High School, 1139 N. Linn Lane, and worked his way from starting as a 21-year-old patrol officer through a variety of assignments, including narcotics officer, problem solving unit sergeant, detective bureau sergeant and operations captain.

He also graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2011.

Perez has been a member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and has worked with the National Latino Peace Officers Association, the Boys & Girls Clubs and other community-based organizations.

His goal is to start a Chief's Advisory Council later this year comprising business, faith and community leaders to forge stronger bonds with the community.

"We need to work on understanding different cultures that exist in our city," Perez said. "We want our police department to reflect the community they serve. We also want to recruit people from within our community. I'm constantly pitching our police department wherever I go."

The department's police force is 71 percent white patrolling a city population of approximately 233,808 that is 31 percent white, 39 percent Latino and 20 percent black, according to the city's website, cityofnorthlasvegas.com.

To alleviate the communication problem, Perez headed the inaugural 12-week Hispanic Citizen's Academy for the police department, which focuses on teaching people about laws, their rights and reporting crimes regardless of their legal status.

"I want to create a strong relationship and a sense of trust with the locals in our community," Perez said. "The issue of being undocumented creates concerns for some people. They become afraid to report a crime when they're victims. I'm here to serve everyone across the board outside their status."

Raquel Gandola, an Argentina native and academy graduate, said she is a survivor of domestic abuse and could not trust the police to help her in her country.

"The police never helped me in Argentina," Gandola said. "At the academy, I learned that I could trust the police department and report crimes. Chief Perez is a great father, husband and son. I see that he wants to help our community, but the department needs a lot of help from its citizens."

The department hired three police officers last year after a five-year freeze. It was down at least 60 officers prior to that.

Perez also has plans to extend the Volunteers in Police Services Citizen's Patrol Program to the south side of the city.

While the position was never Perez's dream job, when the opportunity presented itself, he said he happily accepted the challenge.

"I'm very excited about our future," Perez said. "The fact that we're hiring again is exciting in itself. New officers bring life into the ranks."

— To reach North View reporter Sandy Lopez, email slopez@viewnews.com or call 702-383-4686. Find her on Twitter: @JournalismSandy.