Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo, along with 10 officers, received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing for their work in law enforcement today.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the ceremony took place in front of a small group at a regularly scheduled meeting at LVMPD Headquarters. U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich presented the Project Safe Neighborhoods Leadership Award to Sheriff Lombardo for his Violent Crime Initiative, which reformed crimefighting tactics by developing several highly successful strategies to reduce incidents of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
The award for Innovation in Policing went to Bolden Area Command Detectives Dave Shive, Traves Humpherys and officers Darling Mapes, James Bryant, Luis Vidal, and Strahinja Pavlovic. The group was recognized for Innovations in Policing due to the success of the Bolden Little League program. The baseball program was touted for its ability to build trust with residents and mentoring young children.
The league focused on reducing violent crime by building trust and positively affecting the children and families involved; and the success was in the numbers, with the neighborhoods surrounding the park posting a 76 percent reduction in violent crime from 2018 to 2019.
Narcotics Detective Daniel Weber was awarded for Service Excellence for his work on a marijuana buy program with the Southern Nevada Drug Taskforce. Gang Detectives Christian Parquette and Blake Walford received recognition for their work with the Gang Major Case Team investigation involving a transnational criminal organization.
The Attorney General’s Award recognizes individual state, local, and tribal sworn rankand-file police officers and deputies for exceptional efforts in policing. The awarded officers and deputies have demonstrated active engagement with the community in one of three areas: criminal investigations, field operations or innovations in community policing.
This year, the department received 214 nominations recognizing a total of 355 individual officers, deputies, and troopers. There were 39 states represented in the nomination pool, covering state, local, campus, sheriff, and other agency types.
