Las Vegas police propose $604M budget for next fiscal year
The Metropolitan Police Department wants to increase its operating budget by nearly $29 million for the next fiscal year, according to a department proposal.
Metro is looking to add dozens of new positions, upgrade its internet bandwidth, and purchase furnishings and equipment for a new Summerlin substation in its nearly $604 million proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
This year’s budget is nearly $575 million.
Police are requesting $5 million in reimbursable overtime to handle an increase in officers at large events. The figure represents a 50 percent increase over the amount in the current year’s budget.
The department has seen an increase in requests for special event officers since the Oct. 1 massacre, but the large increase for the next fiscal year is not directly attributable to the shooting, said Rich Hoggan, chief financial officer for Metro. The Electric Daisy Carnival and NASCAR have additional dates planned, requiring a larger police presence, officials said. 
For the most part, Hoggan said, the companies that plan large events pay the department for its overtime up front. One weekend of EDC costs about $1 million to staff, he said.
“We project what’s going to happen,” Hoggan said. “In point of fact, it may be considerably more or less than that.”
The department wants to add 13 new police positions, which would help Metro’s counterterrorism center and homicide and sex crimes sections expand.
An additional 23 civilian positions are being requested over several sections within the department, including crime scene investigations, forensics lab and digital investigations.
Officials said the department is on track to reach its long-term goal of hiring 650 police recruits by June.
Another $1 million in the proposed budget would be used for furnishings for a new police station in Summerlin. The new area command is slated to open in the summer of 2019. The Howard Hughes Corp. agreed to pay for the design and construction of the building, Hoggan said.
Metro wants to upgrade its internet bandwidth to better work with its new higher-resolution body cameras. The department has about 2,200 cameras.
“It’s created a bit of a glut now,” Hoggan said. “In some cases we have a lot of people uploading a lot, so we’ve got to fatten our pipe.”
A quarter of Metro’s revenue comes from the city of Las Vegas, and nearly 45 percent comes from Clark County. The department also gets nearly a quarter of its revenue from property tax and about 9 percent from other sources such as records fees and a contract to patrol the airport.
The Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs is expected to approve the final budget in April.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
Salaries and benefits
Of the nearly $29 million increase proposed in the next fiscal year's budget, roughly $23 million comes from maintaining salaries and benefits for employees, said Rich Hoggan, Metro's chief financial officer.
Cost-of-living and insurance-premium increases account for about $17 million of the total hike. The department also has budgeted $1 million for additional overtime pay.
