North Las Vegas police invite community to voice concerns

By Evan Leake

NORTH LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Dozens of people piled into Alexander Library Tuesday night eager to learn and voice their concerns.

The quarterly community meeting run by the North Las Vegas Police Department is meant to be an outlet to ask questions about their community.

Frank Guarino is a regular fixture at these discussions.

“I’ve lived in North Las Vegas for over 19 years,” Guarino said.

“The importance of having a community relations meeting is absolutely pertinent for not only the questions that I provided today but for everyone that’s involved in the entire community.”

The bulk of Tuesday’s meeting centered around code enforcement.

People like Tim Woods took a lot away from learning more about zoning guidelines and how to handle noise issues in their neighborhood.

“Noise late at night, playing bands, fireworks going off at 2 o’clock in the morning, littering that kind of stuff. We were wanting answers and everything was answered,” Woods said.

NLVPD leaders stressed their desire to form more than just a partnership with the community.

They want to prioritize a relationship, a bond that goes beyond just officer and civilian.

While that relationship isn’t perfect right now, Woods and his wife Pam feel meetings like this are helping get toward that goal.

“They’re trying to interface with the community and I welcome it. I believe that more and more people who have questions and stuff really need to come to these,” Woods said.

As for Guarino, a retired police officer, he believes officers should have a greater presence in the community outside of patrol, but appreciates the effort to still enforce the law throughout North Las Vegas.

“I understand absolutely the importance of being engaged with the community and that’s why you’ll see me at every single one of these because they’re fantastic,” Guarino said.