Las Vegas police revise ‘use of force’ rules

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

Sheriff Douglas C. Gillespie of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD)  held a news conference this morning to  discuss the new LVMPD revised ‘use of force’ rules policy, that went in to effect in June and the ongoing training of all LVMPD Officers.

Earlier in the year, the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) who is  hired by the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS), began an  examination of the LVMPD to review department’s  ‘use of force’ rules,policies and procedures to ensure LVMPD properly addresses community concerns. Metro apparently attracted the attention of the Justice Department because of the high number of officer  involved shootings.

Sheriff Gillespie appeared very receptive to this endeavor and said,

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“This will add another layer of oversight to give the public the assurance it deserves. Metro is and always has been dedicated to being the best police agency in the country.

Once the CNA review was complete, the results were presented to LVMPD along with recommendations for improvement.

The changes already started in June when Sheriff Gilepsie announced that the LVMPD would release deadly force documents that have never been open to the public  before.  He also  authorized the release of Force Investigative Team (FIT) reports on the use of deadly force by officers as well as an  Office of Internal Oversight (OIO) review detailing recommended corrective actions

According to those that attended the briefing this morning, Metro has revamped their ‘use of force’ rules to encompass three key criteria; the preservation of life, having less reliance on escalating situations and more direction in using nonlethal force.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie says this overhaul of the  ‘use of force’ rules is intended to restore public faith in the department.

Gillespie says that the entire revision is available to the public online and that nearly all of his 2,700 officers have already been put through 5 weeks of training on the new policies. The training also included a section where officers that were involved in officer involved shootings shared their experiences and the aftereffects

Gillespie says many changes were based off the 9th Circuit Court decisions on the use of non-lethal force and recommendations the American Civil Liberties Union made.

Metro says its new use of force policy went into effect in June

For those looking to review the information from the OIO online, you can follow the link to the LVMPD – Office of Internal Oversight.

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