This interview is divided into four parts. Part one is above. Parts two through four are in the text below.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Crime across the Las Vegas valley continues to decline, Las Vegas Metro police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in an exclusive interview about the department and safety in the community.
Records updated as of Jan. 12 showed that violent crime in Metro’s jurisdiction decreased by 30% year over year. The only category to increase from January 2024 was larceny and theft.
“How do you measure success?” 8 News Now Investigator David Charns asked McMahill.
“In my business, probably the No. 1 thing we look at is crime reduction, and how well we’re doing against crime,” McMahill said. “We had another widely successful year against crime — down 20% in murders again — we ended up with 107 homicides last year. That’s the lowest number in a very long time.”
Voters elected McMahill the head of Southern Nevada’s largest police jurisdiction in the June 2022 primary. He received more than 50% of the vote. He took office in January 2023 and oversees the police department, which serves the city of Las Vegas and all of unincorporated Clark County.
“Another area that’s really important to me is when I look at the health and welfare of my people,” McMahill said, touting the department’s new wellness center that opened last November.
The Wellness Bureau offers specialized treatment, group therapy sessions — even meditation rooms — for LVMPD employees and their families.
DUI law reform
More people died from car crashes in Clark County in 2024 than in 2023, according to the latest statistics from the Office of Traffic Safety. One of the victims was LVMPD Officer Colton Pulsipher who a wrong-way driver killed near the Valley of Fire.
“The most egregious thing to me by far is there’s no accountability when we catch them,” McMahill said. “We have people five, six, seven, eight, nine DUIs. I don’t know how many times we can expect to arrest somebody for them to go to court and for nothing to happen to them and then expect them to change their behavior.”
McMahill said more needs to be done to combat both drunk driving and impaired driving — with the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada.
In Nevada, a person’s first two DUIs are considered misdemeanors. A third DUI conviction within seven years becomes a felony. A DUI after, if a person is convicted of three DUIs within seven years, is a felony.
“Until we change the way we hold people accountable in the court systems, we’re never going to change the behavior of drivers,” McMahill said. “It’s just not going to happen.”
“A consequence looks like what?” Charns asked.
“I don’t think a day or two in jail is going to do anything to change behavior,” McMahill said. “If in the world that we live in, if we acknowledge that alcohol is an addiction like so many other drugs that we already recognize as it is, then I really think we should be focusing on some intensive supervision, primarily early on. If you see somebody that gets one or two DUIs, they’ve got an alcohol problem, period.”
During his State of the State address, Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who was sheriff before McMahill, proposed changes to criminal law, including DUIs, but he did not provide specifics. McMahill suggested a three-strikes-and-you-are-out policy.
“There needs to be a real consequence,” McMahill said.
“Which is what?” Charns asked.
“I would say at least a year in prison at that point – a minimum of a year in prison before you even begin to think about getting to a place where we are going to help you.”
Traffic reform
To combat the rise in deaths on Clark County roads, McMahill is proposing changing state law to allow for speed and red-light cameras.
“I knew it wasn’t good for me as a politician wanting to get re-elected, but I took it on because I’m tired of people dying on our roadways,” he said.
McMahill slammed court policies of dropping fines and citations down to parking tickets, hoping the technology could better inform the community about traffic incidents.
“We have such an open roadway concept here in Las Vegas – we’ve got to change driving behavior and try to change how people think about it,” he said. The sheriff hoped cameras could help people think about their driving ahead of making a poor decision.
McMahill said he was hopeful lawmakers would change the law this legislative session to allow cameras at major intersections where his department has identified speeding and red-light-running issues. Current law does not allow police to use cameras to combat crime in the way speed cameras or red-light cameras operate.
“I don’t want to turn Las Vegas into a red-light camera at every intersection or a speed camera at every location,” adding he hoped to install them at high-crash locations.
Jan. 1 car bombing
On Jan. 1, Matthew Livelsberger, 37, exploded a homemade car bomb outside the Trump International Hotel, killing himself. The Green Beret shot himself in the head just before fireworks and other explosive material detonated in the back of the Tesla Cybertruck parked at the front entrance of the hotel.
In a manifesto investigators discovered on his phone, Livelsberger listed “variance of grievances,” including political and social issues, such as criticisms of the current administration.
“The most important thing when an event does happen is to go back in and figure out, ‘Was there anywhere in that process where you could have intervened?’”
Livelsberger likely suffered from PTSD and officials said they were aware of potential family issues or personal grievances that might have been contributing factors, officials said in the days after the blast.
McMahill hoped the incident sparked further discussion about mental health and recognizing people who could pose a threat.
“Because just one individual that would have made a call, one individual that had seen the behaviors, we might have been able to stop what it is that he found himself doing on that fateful morning,” McMahill said.
The sheriff said there were ongoing conversations about security on and near the Las Vegas Strip, adding that Metro meets regularly with companies and their security directors.
“We’ve been having them for a number of years,” McMahill said. “There’s this intersection between hospitality and security that’s always been a tenuous relationship at best.”
November police shooting
On Nov. 12, LVMPD Officer Alexander Bookman shot and killed 43-year-old Brandon Durham after Durham called 911 to report the home invasion. Durham told a dispatcher that he was inside his home with his 15-year-old daughter and said he was locking himself in the bathroom.
Police suspect Alejandra Boudreaux, 31, broke into the home after Durham had police remove her from the property the night before.
Fourteen seconds after breaking down Durham’s front door, Bookman shot and killed Durham as he and Boudreaux struggled over a knife, video indicated.
“When you were briefed on that and you saw that video, what was your takeaway?” Charns asked McMahill.
“My takeaway was that’s not the call that you want to get when you are the head of the law enforcement agency where that happened,” the sheriff said. “I knew that we were going to have some challenges in this particular case. I’ve watched that video literally dozens of times, I still can’t tell who was actually holding that knife when the officer confronted the two individuals.”
Bookman spoke with both Boudreaux and Durham during the call for service on Nov. 10 — the night before the home invasion and shooting, the 8 News Now Investigators reported. Boudreaux later left the property and took a rideshare to the airport.
“Did it matter that that same officer had interacted with those people and had been there the day before?” Charns asked.
“I was surprised by that, certainly when you are at a call the day before, you would expect that the officer recognizes them. I’ve responded on thousands of calls in my career, when you get a 911 call, more often than not the 911 call doesn’t have all the adequate information that you need.”
Metro leadership placed Bookman on paid administration leave pending an outcome of their internal investigation. Durham’s family has called for Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson to charge Bookman.
“While I understand everybody wants answers right now, the other part of that is the process is in place for a reason — and you’ll get your answers, but we’re going to do it by the book.”
McMahill highlighted Metro’s policy of releasing details of a use-of-force incident — often with body-camera video — within 72 hours. The policy followed U.S. Department of Justice investigation in 2014.
“I knew that when we were going to release it that it was going to cause an outcry in the community,” McMahill said. “I’m not going to hide because the video doesn’t look good. I’m not going to hide because it doesn’t shine us in the greatest light. I’ve committed to being transparent about this stuff and we’re going to do it. I’m not going to shy away from those problems because I’ve got 6,200 people in this organization and we make mistakes, but we also try to learn from those mistakes.”
Boudreaux’s criminal case was paused as of January as she undergoes a competency evaluation. She faces charges of home invasion with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon constituting domestic violence, child abuse and arson.
‘Is our community getting safer?’
“I think the numbers tell you that,” McMahill said. “As much as what the numbers say, it has to be the perception of how people feel, and I think we’ve got a long way to go on that.”
Metro implores a motto “If you see something, say something.” Emergencies can be reported by calling 911. Non-emergencies that do not require an immediate response can be reported through 311. Police reports can be filed at a local area command or by calling 702-828-3111 for help.
While eluding to a possible re-election bid during the conversation, McMahill said it was too early to decide if he would seek re-election in 2026.
