Question of the Day - 28 March 2022

Yes. There is plenty of cooperation between casinos and law enforcement, in various situations.

We got a look into one of them in our recent book Joe's Dash, about Joe Dorsey, who went from being a San Diego police officer and detective to a security and surveillance director for a number of Las Vegas hotels, including the Hilton, in the '80s and '90s.

In the book, author Linda Ellis wrote, "When crimes were committed or criminals were spotted in the area around the Hilton, the police department contacted Joe and his supervisors to be on alert. One such notification led to the arrest of a bank robber, right on the property."

We asked Joe about it and he gave us a little more insight.

Operating at that time was the Crime Alert System. When Metro had an incident or information about a crime, the available information was sent to all the casinos on the system via fax. The alerts were not only for crimes, but for lost children and adults with dementia, descriptions of vehicles used in crimes, and the like. When received by the casinos, the information was the forwarded to all security and surveillance personnel by radio.

We didn't approach any suspects. We only observed them, contacted Metro, and waited for officers to arrive, as in the bank-robbery case. We took action only when the subject became a danger to customers and employees; then we detained the subject or subjects for the police.

In the really old days, casino security officers were actually sworn peace officers and augmented the Las Vegas Police Department and Clark County Sheriff’s Office. [That was before the two merged into LVMP.]

"Today with the growth of Clark County, the Metropolitan Police have many individual commands and each command's notifications come to the security department in their specific area. These are called Partner Notifications and Partner Updates. With these partnerships, casino security and all local, state and federal law enforcement work very closely together, not only on crimes, but issues of homeland security and terrorism involving federal joint terrorism task forces. Due to the influx of 300,000 visitors each week, without the cooperation of the resorts' security, Metro would have to add hundreds more officers.

The casinos have always had a close-knit relationship with law enforcement.