North Las Vegas constable sometimes armed on duty

North Las Vegas Constable Robert Eliason ended his monthslong silence last week, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal he works in the field and sometimes carries a weapon on the job despite his failure to obtain required certification as a peace officer.

Eliason’s emailed statements, his first response to nine months of repeated interview requests by the newspaper, appear to conflict with previous statements from state Sen. Mo Denis that the job is administrative.

But even in his comments about his failure to be certified, Eliason provided few details about his job. He did stress his belief, however, that the requirement is unfair.

“Historically, (peace officer) certification was not required of constables,” Eliason wrote.

Eliason noted that the current law, which requires certification within one year of taking office, was put on the books in 2013. It was amended in 2015, and in Clark County, it applies only to constables of areas with populations of 100,000 or more.

“All of the state’s constables, urban or rural, have the same responsibilities and duties,” he wrote.

Eliason has served for more than two years without obtaining the certification from the Nevada Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. He wrote that he has applied for certification once in 2015 and once in 2016, but the commission reports it has no record of his application.

State law requires that constables who don’t become certified forfeit their office

Law may go away

If Eliason can hold on to his position for a few months longer, he may no longer need to worry about becoming certified as a peace officer.

That’s because Senate Bill 250 would remove the requirement from state law. It’s headed to the Senate floor after being passed out of committee this week.

Denis, D-Las Vegas, is the primary sponsor of the bill. He said that if the constables of rural areas don’t need to be certified, then urban constables shouldn’t need to be either.

“The POST certification doesn’t make sense for the constables,” Denis told the Review-Journal in February. “Currently those guys are administrators, and they don’t even go out in the field.”

That’s not exactly the case, according to Eliason, who wrote he had been in the field serving paperwork as recently as Monday and last conducted an eviction in December.

In an interview this week, Denis stood by his assessment that Eliason’s duties are “administrative” in nature.

“I don’t think of an administrator as some guy sitting behind a desk,” he said. “(Eliason) says he occasionally goes out, but I didn’t have a discussion where I asked, ‘Do you go out every day? Do you go out every week?’”

“There’s a difference between administrating and doing police work,” Denis said.

In his email, Eliason did not mention exercising any police powers on the job. He wrote that he has not written traffic citations or made arrests, which require peace officer certification.

Eliason added that he has never had to use force to carry out his duties, but he “occasionally” carries a weapon while working.

He did not respond to a request for further detail on the kind of weapon he carries.

Tim Bunting, deputy director of the Nevada Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, said his agency just wants to make sure that anyone who is not a certified peace officer isn’t exercising police powers or projecting an image of having them.

“If he’s not displaying a badge or gun, he’s probably fine,” Bunting said of Eliason. “If he looks like a cop, people are going to think he’s a peace officer.”

Eliason declined the Review-Journal’s request for an interview in-person or by telephone.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.