LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The Henderson Police Chief explains how he worked to boost low morale among officers and rapidly fill vacancies in his first 100 days in office.
FOX5 spoke exclusively to Chief Reggie Rader after his presentation to the Henderson City Council. The Henderson resident and former LVMPD leader took the helm in July, following the firing of the previous police chief.
There are 429 officers in the department with a total of 736 employees.
“When I first got here three months ago, the two issues I identified that would be day one priorities for me were retention, really filling those vacancies, and morale,” Rader tells FOX5.
In July, HPD had 57 officer vacancies. Rader reported the number has now decreased to 20.
Many officers in local agencies have applied for positions, Rader said.
“Filling those vacancies – we were looking outside before I got here at all the surrounding states, and then I thought about my own journey: being a resident of Henderson, wanting to come protect the city that I live in, and we started looking ‘local.’ It’s showing that the people that are already here in the community are our best resource that want to come over and work for a city like Henderson,” he said.
Many of the 46 recruits in the academy are locals, Rader said.
When you come to an agency like us, you’re a name, you’re not just a number. We’ve been able to be very responsive when people are putting in interest and going to meet with them, talk to them about what they can expect, and really just give them the information that they need when they’re trying to decide what agencies they want to go to,” he said.
More officers on the force help with a crime reduction: Rader reports a 19% decrease in violent crime and a 54% decrease in vehicle fatalities.
In his presentation to the council, Rader said that the traffic section now primarily handles accidents so officers can focus on proactive patrols.
An increase in officers helps with proper staffing for shifts.
“When I was talking to these officers when I first got here, they’re working hard, but they’re tired. They have a lot of overtime they have to do just to get those shifts filled, because they’re not going to leave a call unanswered. They can take some time off. They don’t have to work overtime every single day just to meet minimum staffing,” he said.
Rader explains what has been done to boost morale: officers wanted a way to communicate issues and concerns to leadership, he said.
“The officers didn’t feel supported,” Rader said, noting officers wanted a leadership presence at briefings. “They said they never really saw the captain level or above any of the command teams going there. So it’s regular now where you see a captain, one of my deputy chiefs, or you see me in a briefing, so we can just hear all of the issues that are going on there and we can relay the message,” he said.
Rader has promoted officers from within to help with that mission.
After all the vacancies are filled, Rader said he hopes to add more officers to the traffic section to further reduce deaths on our roads.
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