1. Part I

    Always Justified

    Las Vegas police shoot often but seldom are disciplined.

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  2. Part II

    142 Dead, and Rising

    Many of the 378 shootings could have been avoided.

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  3. Part III

    Quick to Shoot, Slow to Change

    Las Vegas police are slow to deal with problems.

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  4. Part IV

    Broken System, Shattered Lives

    At every step, the inquest system protects police.

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  5. Part V

    Better Ways

    What Las Vegas can learn from other police departments.

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Part III: Quick to Shoot, Slow to Change

Flawed system never faults police who kill

The history of Las Vegas law enforcement is replete with questionable behavior by officers leading to shootings that were legally justified, but unnecessary.

In the third of a five-part series on officer-involved shootings, the Review-Journal found that systems used by the Metropolitan Police Department fail to rein in problem cops even after they kill under dubious circumstances.

Police records show that the department's Use of Force Review Board, which is designed to weed out problem cops and spotlight deficiencies in training and tactics, finds no errors in 97 percent of all shootings it reviews, and has never faulted a cop in a fatal incident.

How bad is it?

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie acknowledges his department's shooting review process is flawed.

A former police officer who served on the board offered a less diplomatic description: "It's just a crock."

Faces of the Dead

Since 1990, police in the Las Vegas Valley have killed 142 people in 378 officer-involved shootings. Clark County coroner's inquest juries cleared the officers of wrongdoing in all 142 deaths, but many could have been avoided and some remain highly controversial. In an unprecedented research project, the Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained all the available public records on all fatal and non-fatal shootings. This gallery covers the 142 dead.

Friday, May 25, 2012
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