Las Vegas sheriff frustrated after red-light camera, DUI bills fail: ‘We can do better'

Yahoo

05-06-2025

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Several proposals in the Nevada Legislature aimed at curbing dangerous and impaired driving failed, leaving LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill frustrated as more people in his jurisdiction die on valley roads.
'I got to be honest with you, I feel like I failed,' McMahill, who leads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the 8 News Now Investigators during an exclusive interview Wednesday. 'We can do better. We absolutely can do better, and politics played a role in these things not getting passed.'
The 120-day legislative session ended Tuesday at midnight. Nevada lawmakers failed to pass any legislation this session to amend the state's DUI laws where death is involved, or several proposals to allow red-light cameras.
McMahill pushed for the cameras in an attempt to discourage reckless and speeding drivers.
'I'm sick and tired of people dying on our roadways because of the bad behavior of other drivers,' he told a legislative committee in March.
The bill failed to move forward and died in April.
Two proposals aimed at enhancing sentences for DUI involving death also failed to become law. Nevada's DUI-with-death law carries a sentence of 2-20 years. A 1995 Nevada law requires judges to sentence a person to a range, meaning the maximum amount of time a DUI driver who kills can serve in prison before going before the parole board is eight years. The 8 News Now Investigators have found most drivers who kill serve those eight years or less, not 20.
An amended version of Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo's crime bill, Senate Bill 457, would have increased the maximum amount of prison time for a DUI driver who kills to 25 years.
Lombardo told the 8 News Now Investigators in March that he wanted to change the law to allow prosecutors to charge a DUI driver who kills with second-degree murder. The amended version would have carried a similar maximum sentence – 25 years — as the state's second-degree murder statute. However, the bill failed to pass the Nevada Senate amid a last-minute scramble and speech.
A second proposal, Senate Bill 304, would have amended the state's vehicular homicide law to include all DUIs involving death. As currently written, a driver must have three prior DUI convictions to face a vehicular-homicide charge. The proposal would have negated the prior conviction clause, carrying a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years or 10 to life, the same as the state's second-degree murder statute.
'There's just tragedy, tragedy, tragedy all the way around, and it sickens me that I wasn't able to get this done, quite frankly,' McMahill said.
Opponents have argued that imprisoning a person for years on the taxpayers' dime is not effective
'Who do you think is working against this?' 8 News Now Investigator David Charns asked the sheriff.
'I think there's a lot of people out there who advocate that this mass incarceration piece hasn't worked over the years,' McMahill said. 'And look, there's a few arguments I think that are valid on that side of the house. There's also a bunch of people that think we've become very soft on crime, and I think there's some arguments that are true there as well.'
Nevada law classifies a person's first DUI as a misdemeanor. It carries a potential jail sentence of 2-180 days, though the law is written to say the time can be served through community service. The crime becomes a felony after a person's third DUI within seven years. Tougher penalties, including potential prison time, do not begin unless a person joins that three-plus club.
A felony DUI conviction can carry prison time and require a driver to have an interlock device placed in their vehicle. One driver the 8 News Now Investigators followed racked up the three cases so quickly that he did not have a second DUI conviction before his third arrest, meaning all three remained misdemeanors. Records show in those first three DUI cases, municipal court judges ordered the driver to attend classes, stay out of trouble and pay a fine.
'The punishments are literally a slap on the hand,' McMahill said. 'The multiple, multiple DUI, I've watched your reports, you know exactly what I'm talking about, people can get away with a DUI over and over again and that's purely not acceptable.'
A third proposal involving misdemeanor DUI, Senate Bill 309, passed and — 36 hours after the end of the session — showed as enrolled in the legislative system. The bill changes the minimum jail requirements for a person's second DUI offense within seven years, amending a possible penalty from 10 days in jail to 20. The bill also lowers the blood-alcohol threshold for when a defendant would be ordered into treatment.
Several people blamed the failure of the governor's crime bill on its late introduction and last-minute votes in the final minutes of the legislative session. The governor submitted the crime bill in February, but the Legislative Counsel Bureau did not finalize it until April, a spokesperson for his office said. They added that Democratic leadership did not give the bill a hearing until May 28 — days before the end of the session.
Lawmakers will not reconvene, except for special circumstances at the request of the governor, until February 2027.
8 News Now Investigator David Charns can be reached at [e-mail].
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