LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – FOX5 Las Vegas anchor John Huck spoke with the sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The two had a 1-on-1 about issues across the Las Vegas Valley and what’s next for the city, including the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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See the story through the video player above. Below is the full interview.
First, Huck and Kevin McMahill discuss drivers and red lights.
Huck: “Why do you suppose drivers aren’t getting the message?”
McMahill: “That’s a great question. I’m not sure why they’re not getting the message. I think there’s a probably a combination of factors. One of one of those factors is there’s really no punishment when you get a citation today. A lot of the traffic offenses are not criminal anymore. They go to a civil fine. And you know, if you pay them, you pay them. If you don’t, you don’t. But that’s a big part of my entire campaign here of trying to bring awareness to this. Right now, we’re at 139 fatality wrecks in just my jurisdiction. That’s not the rest of the state. By comparison, I’m sitting at 97 homicides.”
Those detectives and officers are out there dealing with dead bodies in a traffic fatality farm, more than they even are in homicide today. I’m tired of it. Quite frankly, I’m tired of our irresponsible drivers in our town and going out there and speeding and running red lights and doing the things that they’re doing.
We’re finding ourselves where we’re losing loved ones, right? And that’s the important part for me. People don’t people don’t really get it, but that fatality leaves a family devastated.
I get asked about why I’m supporting red red light cameras and speed cameras. And from a political perspective, it was a bad move. You know, winning winning over voters, because it didn’t matter if you’re on the left or the right. Everybody thinks it’s a terrible idea, but I’m tired of losing people on our roadways. I’m tired of having my men and women go out there and pick up those pieces, and I’m tired of the devastation that that occurs around it.
I’m an elected leader in our community, and I have done the work to study these things, to see how it can it can slow people down and save lives, and that’s exactly why I’m out there advocating to get these things passed in the legislature next legislative session.
Let’s take that money that is generated from these cameras and put it back into when you’re a new driver, you have to go through the driver’s edge, course, right? We could actually make it.
So we’re teaching new drivers from the get go, how to be a responsible driver.”
Huck: “The criticism is still there that this is a money grab. What do you suppose is going on there where people just aren’t getting that your message on that?”
McMahill: “I think what the whole point is, as we move to trying to get the legislators to actually enable this, is that within that law, we actually have it as law as to how it’s installed, where the money goes, all of those things. So there’s never a question about it. I don’t think there should ever be a question about what is happening with that money.”
Huck and McMahill also discussed efforts into the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Huck: Let’s move on to F1. Do you feel you are ready for this?
McMahill: I am in a much better place as far as readiness than I was the first year. But listen, I’m going to just be completely candid with you. We know Las Vegas is a target. It always has been. And what I will tell you is, is that I plan for every single one of these special events that we have on our Strip, like it’s going to be attacked or something is going to happen. So our preparedness level, our mindset of prevention, the amount of officers that we’re going to have out there, the tools and the techniques that we’re going to use are things that we tabletop and and sort of war game.
But also, you know, I’ll give you an example. Last year’s F1 we did a hot wash and after action report on that thing. There were about 70 areas that we needed to address between last year and this year. They’ve all been addressed. We’ll do the same thing next year.
Right right after F1 is over, we’ll start we treat F1 very similar to what we do with New Year’s Eve. The planning for both of those events starts within weeks. Of them actually ending from the year prior. And so what I can tell you is, if you haven’t seen it, you should go.
It’s a unique spectacle for our city. It’s just another thing that makes our city really unique, and it’s safe for you and your families to go down there. I’m completely confident that
Huck: Are there any credible threats being investigated?
McMahill: I wouldn’t say there’s any credible threats that were are being investigated, but I will tell you that there’s always persons of interest that we’re paying attention to whenever Las Vegas is in the spotlight of a national event that people are paying and in this case, this is an international event, right?
People all around the world are tuning in to watch what happens in these races. So we’re constantly paying attention to all of those threats that emerge, not only through our federal partnerships, but through my own counterterrorism section that we have.
Huck: Will people notice anything different? Or is this something where you try to kind of blend in with the crowds?
McMahill: No, really interesting question. I try to have a really highly visible presence of our officers.
But also, in this case, we’re partnering with about 1,200 private security officers, so we want them to have a very visible presence for deterrence number one, but also number two is if you think you’re going to get away with something, you know you’re not, because you’re not going to go five feet without seeing a cop, right?
And so, but let me just tell you this part without exposing too much, there’s a whole lot of people that are police officers and law enforcement in and amongst those crowds that you’re not going to know that are law enforcement.
Huck: What do you think are the big lessons you took from year one now into year two?
McMahill: Big lessons? Well, I can tell you, from a command perspective, F1 does things, I guess, a little bit differently than some of the other entities that we came in. You know, as you remember, just last year, we went from executing F1 right into the New Year’s Eve and then the Super Bowl.
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