With their trademark, creased light blue button-down shirts, Nye County Sheriff’s Office auxiliary officers are always visible at scenes of vehicle crashes, structure fires and other incidents involving public safety.
But there are now changes underway into the auxiliary program in terms of operations, certain procedures and appearances among the officers, including new polo-style shirts.
Chaplain Drake Austin, a former auxiliary officer, spoke to the Pahrump Valley Times about his feelings on the recent changes to the program implemented by Sheriff Joe McGill.
“It makes these volunteers look like they’re less important to the sheriff’s department,” Austin said. “They took away their metal badges and gave them cloth embroidered badges. For many years, these guys have been able to wear the badge to say they are volunteers for the sheriff’s department and not just some schmuck out there on the road waving his hands around, controlling traffic. We’re not selling cupcakes on the side of the road when performing traffic control.”
Austin also spoke about changes implemented in the appearance of patrol vehicles that auxiliary members drive each day.
“When I was out there doing traffic control, I could switch on the red and the blue lights and people would know to stop because there’s a police action going on,” he noted. “Now, he wants to take those lights away and just have the amber lights like we were utility workers. Because of that, drivers tend to ignore us.”
Pahrump resident Michael Miraglia served many years as a sheriff’s office auxiliary member.
“They can’t carry pepper spray, which is the only defense they have against dogs, he told the Pahrump Valley Times. “Years ago, we trained with the deputies and they got to know us. I’ve heard from a deputy that he doesn’t even know any of the new guys.”
Potential liability
During a conversation with the Pahrump Valley Times, McGill explained the decision to make changes to the auxiliary program.
“Prior to my taking office, it was approved for the auxiliary’s members who had a concealed weapon permit to carry a concealed weapon while they were working,” McGill said. “We checked into that and through our risk-management section in our county’s insurance, we found that the county’s insurance would not indemnify, or not cover the auxiliary members using that firearm under whatever circumstances while they were working. In order to prevent the liability being on the county and sheriff’s office for a multi-million dollar lawsuit, I made the decision to prevent them from carrying their concealed weapons while they’re working.”
McGill went on to state that he also made the decision to end the practice of auxiliary officers to display metal badges on their uniform shirts.
“They could be easily be mistaken as being a law enforcement officer by a bad guy,” he noted. “In the interest of safety to those individuals, I decided to take the metal badges away and they’re being replaced by an embroidered badge which is very, very similar to the appearance of an NCSO badge, but it just says volunteer also on it. We’ve also decided to take away their pepper spray, and it’s being replaced by a citronella-based type of repellent, which is what’s used by the United States Postal Service. We’re doing everything we can to prevent them from being mistaken for a law enforcement officer under a negative situation. The instruction that we’ve given to the auxiliary all along, is if something starts to escalate, then they’re expected to just back away and call dispatch for deputy assistance.”
Dissenting opinions
McGill said that he has received some community pushback regarding the new implementations.
“Some of our auxiliary members have resigned as a result of these changes, and I wish that that hadn’t happened, but rest assured, these decisions are being made in the interest of our employees’ safety. That’s all it is.”
Work ethic lauded
Pushback aside, McGill praised the work of all members of the NCSO auxiliary unit.
“They provide an incredible service to our community, where some of them work more than 40 hours a week, and they do it for nothing,” according to McGill. “They serve papers, such as eviction notices, they do traffic control for us at crash scenes or anything that we’re involved in. They provide a fantastic service to us, and I appreciate every minute of their time that they give to us.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On X: @pvtimes