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Police Rebuild Trust in Las Vegas’ Westside, One Event at a Time

May 1, 2017 by 911media

Before the embers had cooled from the riots and fire that roiled Las Vegas’ Historic Westside 25 years ago after the Rodney King verdicts, the Metropolitan Police Department was forced to confront its failure to build relationships with residents of the city’s predominantly black community.

Flash forward 25 years, and the difference in the department’s approach in the demographically shifting district is striking:

The community policing team of the Bolden Area Command station, whose patrol area includes the Westside, often work 12-hour days hosting holiday events, food banks and other events and partnering with the area’s faith and business leaders.

Bolden Area Command’s Capt. Robert Plummer was a 23-year-old patrol cop assigned to the Westside in the early ‘90s, a time when the community was facing a violent crime wave caused by an influx of gang members from Southern California – Bloods and Crips – and a crack epidemic.

Plummer said the relationship between the police and the local community was not great. Community outreach was often an afterthought, and many officers did not bring empathy to the job. More often, they came with battering rams.

The strained relationship between cops and community was evident when two small police stations near the Gerson Park and Carey Arms housing projects burned during the riots. The department did not rebuild them.

“That was a mistake,” Plummer said. “We should have gone right back in there.”

Elgin Simpson was there when the riots broke out and played a key role in organizing community leaders afterward. Simpson, who was born in the Westside in 1945, said the riots changed the dynamic between the community and law enforcement.

The group he helped start, Community Peace, did outreach in troubled neighborhoods and often acted as a go-between with police.

“It made a difference in how things were perceived,” he said. “All you saw on the news was how the gangs were doing all of this stuff, that they … wanted to burn down the Strip and downtown and all that other stuff.”

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Filed Under: News Room, Local

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*Retirement Alert*

Congratulations to LVMPD Corrections Officer Ronald Rodriguez, who retired last week after serving our community and Las Vegas Metro for 23 years.

LVPPA Executive Director Myron Hamm had the privilege of presenting Ronald with a plaque on behalf of a grateful association.

Congratulations, brother, on a great career and a well-earned retirement.

#lvmpd #lasvegas #vegasstrong #lvppa #community #correctionsofficer #retirement #service #thinblueline #supportlawenforcement #backtheblue

It’s about time, and this should be happening everywhere!

On June 8, 2025, Police Officer Gabriel Facio of the Apache Junction (AZ) Police Department was killed in the line of duty.

While investigating a road rage incident on June 2, Officer Facio was shot by the suspect who was initially cooperative but later retrieved a handgun and engaged officers in a gunfight.

Gabriel was 46 years old and had been a cop for four years. He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren and parents.

Godspeed, brother.

#honorourfallen #supportlawenforcement #community #lvppa #backtheblue

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