Mayoral Candidate Cedric Crear On Public Safety

It’s a historic election season with Las Vegas voters deciding on a new mayor in 2024. As part of our ongoing Mayoral Mondays series, City Cast Las Vegas is publishing questionnaires and conducting in-depth podcast interviews with the candidates. Last week, we heard from Shelley Berkley. Over the weekend, we published interviews with Tera Anderson and Kola Akingbade. Now Cedric Crear makes his case for holding the city’s top office. The City Council member, who wants to be the first Vegas-born mayor, previews his interview with some thoughts on public safety.

What should be the top priority for the new mayor?

“The number one issue in our city is public safety. We have to continue to keep our community safe. I work with three area commands now — Bolden Area Command, Downtown Area Command, Northwest Area Command — and we have to ensure our residents have a sound quality of life, that our neighborhoods are safe, and people feel comfortable going out of their homes and participating in our community.”

What's an example of a policy you'd be able to push forward as mayor, understanding you don't have specific control over the policies of the elected sheriff?

“I would beg to differ to a certain extent. I’ve been on the Fiscal Affairs Committee for five years now and worked to ensure our frontline officers and our Metro Police Force have the necessary resources they need to keep our community safe.

“The City of Las Vegas contributes about 180 million a year towards the budget for Metro, so it does have a say. I've traveled with the sheriff to Maricopa County in Phoenix to look at crisis stabilization units, which are temporary facilities for those experiencing some form of mental illness. We're looking to bring those CSUs into Las Vegas.”

Would you ever consider holding back funding if Metro wasn’t adhering to policies you thought were important for the city?

“That's a very broad question … You have to look at every situation. I'm not a person that just takes a hard stance across the board for anything. If it's working, we'll continue to do it and figure out ways to enhance it. And if it's not working, we’ll figure out why and try to make it better.”