Why the Nye County sheriff says more funding is needed for raises, new recruits

Sheriff Joe McGill is lobbying Nye County commissioners to raise salaries for his deputies.

He told county officials late last month that pay increases are needed in order to attract and retain qualified law enforcement officers to the department.

Other Nevada counties are offering sign-on bonuses and lucrative incentives to hire the best recruits, McGill said.

Some members of his department have already left for better-paying jobs.

Service calls have increased in Nye County over the past several years, McGill added, saying that more funding from the county is needed to help hire additional officers, and meet growing demands for law enforcement.

“Currently, our budgeting system is lacking in funding…” McGill said in an interview with KPVM. “We need to increase [our payroll] amount so we can increase deputies’ pay and provide more deputies on the street responding to calls for service, conducting traffic enforcement, conducting drug investigations – all of the different aspects of what we have to do on a day-to-day basis.”

An online posting advertises an entry-level deputy job with the Nye County Sheriff’s Office with a starting salary between $45,281-$47,091 annually. A similar posting for a deputy sheriff position with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department advertises starting pay at or above $59,321 annually.

It’s been impossible to fill about 30 vacant positions in Nye County’s department, McGill said, adding that one county official had recommended eliminating the roles that cannot be filled, and dividing those salary allocations between current members of the department to give them a pay boost.

“That’s a partial solution,” McGill said, but it doesn’t solve the department’s staffing shortage.

It would likely mean the department would not be able to add new officers, he said.

McGill says the Nye County Detention Center is also short-staffed.

“We have prisoners that are being overseen by too-few deputies and it’s coming to the point we cannot hire enough deputies to fill these empty positions that we have,” he told KPVM.

Email Editor Brent Schanding at bschanding@pvtimes.com