The elections are over, and Sheriff Joseph Lombardo is now Governor Joseph Lombardo. This puts police officers in Nevada in a very good position to have our profession protected and hopefully get back on track of protecting Nevadans instead of having our profession attacked with more police reform that tries to tie our hands and ultimately hurts the citizens of our state.

Both the Assembly and Senate are controlled by Democrats. The Assembly Democrats have a supermajority, but they are one seat shy of having a supermajority in the Senate, which is important because it means that they cannot override a bill that is vetoed by Governor Lombardo. This is very good for law enforcement in Nevada because I believe it will have Democrats thinking twice before they try and pass bad reform bills. 

They will try to get some things passed, and I am already tracking bills that want to change the makeup of LVMPD’s Fiscal Affairs Committee and a bill that would not require a police officer in Nevada to be a United States citizen. You, the member, will have the ability to access the bills I am tracking via a link on the LVPPA website that should be added by the time you are reading this article. I will also be emailing out weekly updates throughout the entire legislative session so that all of you know what bills I am tracking and where they currently sit in the legislative process. 

There may be times that I call upon all of you to contact legislators about certain bills, and I will make that process as easy as possible with a new bill-tracking program I am using that is literally as easy as clicking a link and entering your name and email address, and hitting send. This will then send a prearranged email that I have written to the legislators who are responsible for passing these bills out of committees and ultimately on to a vote in both chambers. 

Your participation has a definite impact on legislators’ decisions, so please, when I ask for your help … please help. As cops, we all like to complain about the process and the outcome of elections, but when asked to take part in a process, we often become apathetic and have a sit-back-and-just-take-it approach. Law enforcement has a huge voice in Carson City, so let’s use that voice and let every legislator know that we matter and our profession matters. 

We are professional, capable and courageous men and women who take policing this state very seriously, and our voices need to be heard. If any of you have questions about bills or the legislative session, I am always available at (702) 468-0766 or jabel@lvppa.com.