The head of a federal
law enforcement oversight group credited Las Vegas police Wednesday with
upgrading training, keeping better track of how and when officers use deadly
force, and instituting a pilot program to put cameras on the uniforms of some
officers.
The acting head of
the U.S. Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services told
reporters that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has addressed or
completed all but nine of 80 reforms called for in a report the agency made
public 10 months ago.
"We're talking
significant progress in a matter of months," COPS Acting Director Joshua
Ederheimer said at a news conference with U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden and Clark
County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.
Ederheimer noted that
other police departments take years or decades to implement reforms, and said
the collaborative COPS review appeared to be having an effect in Las Vegas.
"The number of
officer involved shootings is gradually declining," he said.
After peaking at 25
shootings in 2010, Las Vegas police were involved in 17 officer-involved
shootings in 2011, 11 in 2012 and 10 so far this year, the report said. Four
people died in police shootings in 2012, and two this year, department
officials said.
Ederheimer, Bogden
and Gillespie said some of the nine unresolved recommendations depended on
action by other agencies, such as a proposal that the Clark County district
attorney dedicate resources to more fully investigate officer-involved
shootings.
Other
recommendations, like a call for training and evaluating Las Vegas police
officers on their ability to de-escalate tense confrontations, weren't assessed
yet but would be made part of a final report due in February, Ederheimer said.
One, which would have
police officers involved in on-duty shootings provide statements to criminal
investigators, may never be implemented, the report said. It said police unions
were directing Las Vegas officers involved in shootings not to cooperate with
deadly force investigations.
The head of the Las
Vegas Police Protective Association, Chris Collins, disputed that finding. He
said officers routinely cooperate in several layers of post-shooting
departmental and administrative reviews. But he said officers are advised not
to provide statements in legal proceedings unless they are granted so-called
Garrity protection from criminal prosecution _ meaning their words won't be used
to self-incriminate them.
COPS was enlisted in
January 2012 to study Las Vegas police use-of-force policies and practices
aimed at cutting the number of officer-involved shootings, after a series of
high-profile police shootings and a Las Vegas Review-Journal analysis that
tallied 142 people killed by Las Vegas police in a little more than a decade.
The newspaper investigation concluded that Las Vegas police were quicker to the
trigger than officers in other similarly sized cities.
COPS officials on
Wednesday termed the resulting review a "collaborative reform model."
Gillespie, the
elected chief of a Las Vegas police force that includes about 3,200 sworn
police and jail officers and 1,500 civilians, has announced he won't seek a
third term as sheriff. But he promised the reforms would continue.
"Actions speak
louder than words," Gillespie said. "We were, we are and we continue
to be committed to these reforms."
Ederheimer noted that
his agency planned to use the Las Vegas experience in similar police practices
reviews of departments in Philadelphia and Spokane, Wash.
