After Las Vegas Shooting, a Tight-Lipped Sheriff Faces a Maddening Case
LAS VEGAS — In nearly 30 years with the Las Vegas police, Joseph Lombardo has helped defuse an armed standoff between federal agents
and local ranchers, struggled to contain a spike in homicides and defended his officers against accusations of using excessive force against a professional football player.
Sheriff Lombardo, who worked his way up the ranks of the Las Vegas police before running for sheriff, took over a department
that had been scrutinized in 2012 by the Justice Department for frequent police shootings, but was held up as a model for what it did in response, putting changes into place that federal officials had recommended.
Gary Schofield, who retired from the Las Vegas police this year as a deputy chief, said, “Joe is not a politician,”
but rather “a cop who happens to be in a political job.”
Sheriff Lombardo calls himself a moderate and says that, unlike many in his party’s right wing, he supports some forms of gun control.
He added that the sheriff has “had to pivot in 50 different directions.”
William H. Sousa, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said
that Sheriff Lombardo was part of a generation of reform-minded police chiefs and sheriffs who want to improve community relations and raise training standards.
“He’s had a lot thrown on his plate,” said Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas
Police Protective Association, the union that represents rank-and-file officers.