After months of inaction from Joe Lombardo on Nevada’s state police shortage, Lombardo told KLAS that while police are citing take-home pay as the reason for shortages, those are just constant complaints “of people that represent them, in particular to the union representatives.” Lombardo dismissed the high vacancy rate as being due to “attrition” caused by retirements or “people that leave for other reasons”, which is exactly the point the Nevada Police Union has been making, citing low take-home pay relative to competing agencies as the primary reason for shortages.
Lombardo’s indifference to the struggles of the Nevada State Police follows his vote against the union’s collective bargaining agreement that included critical pay increases for officers in 2023. Lombardo stiffed officers again by ordering that they and other state employees who were working under collective bargaining agreements wouldn’t be receiving longevity pay under AB522 – payments of up to $1,027. In 2023, Lombardo also vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have helped boost state police take-home pay by cutting their share of retirement contributions in half.
After calling state trooper vacancies “a crisis” on the campaign trail in 2022, Lombardo has failed to propose a real solution even as they face a decrease in their take-home pay this summer as their contributions to the Public Employees’ Retirement System are set to increase.
Under Joe Lombardo, Nevada Communities Are Left Unpatrolled and Unsafe:
- Reporting from KLAS found that under Lombardo, statewide vacancy rates for state police have increased again.
- State troopers patrolling in the Las Vegas Valley have decreased 45% since 2015.
- State police reported an estimated 58% vacancy rate in the Las Vegas area
- Only three to four officers patrol the entire Valley at night.
- In 2023, it was announced that state police would not have the resources to patrol Reno between 2-5 a.m. and that remains the case today in 2025.
- In 2023, Nevada reported more deaths on the road than the national average.
To see how Lombardo’s state police shortage is impacting Nevada, you can click below:
Las Vegas: HERE, Reno: HERE, Rural Communities: HERE
###
