After Las Vegas Shooting, a Tight-Lipped Sheriff Faces a Maddening Case<br />LAS VEGAS — In nearly 30 years with the Las Vegas police, Joseph Lombardo has helped defuse an armed standoff between federal agents<br />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.<br />Sheriff Lombardo, who worked his way up the ranks of the Las Vegas police before running for sheriff, took over a department<br />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.<br />Gary Schofield, who retired from the Las Vegas police this year as a deputy chief, said, “Joe is not a politician,”<br />but rather “a cop who happens to be in a political job.”<br />Sheriff Lombardo calls himself a moderate and says that, unlike many in his party’s right wing, he supports some forms of gun control.<br />He added that the sheriff has “had to pivot in 50 different directions.”<br />William H. Sousa, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said<br />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.<br />“He’s had a lot thrown on his plate,” said Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas<br />Police Protective Association, the union that represents rank-and-file officers.
