Las Vegas Fire Installing Surveillance Cameras At Stations

Posted by: Curt Varone September 28, 2017 3 Comments

The City of Las Vegas is following through on plans to install video surveillance at its fire stations in the aftermath of recent sex-on-duty scandals. The plan was announced last May by Fire Chief William McDonald to help cope with several recent incidents of inappropriate sexual activities at fire stations.

The installation of 110 cameras at 20 stations began last week and is expected to be completed just before Christmas. Each station will have between four and six cameras. The cost for project is estimated to be $518,814.

Here is more on the story.

Some may ask, why bother spending money on this kind of video surveillance to stop misconduct that would be better addressed by severely punishing the guilty as opposed to initiating surveillance on the innocent? For those who have been though the Managing Disciplinary Challenges in the Fire Service program, why would Chief McDonald have done this? Does it sound like a solution to a bell curve problem that we discussed in class?

About Curt Varone

Curt Varone has over 45 years of fire service experience and 35 as a practicing attorney licensed in both Rhode Island and Maine. His background includes 29 years as a career firefighter in Providence (retiring as a Deputy Assistant Chief), as well as volunteer and paid on call experience. He is the author of two books: Legal Considerations for Fire and Emergency Services, (2006, 2nd ed. 2011, 3rd ed. 2014, 4th ed. 2022) and Fire Officer's Legal Handbook (2007), and is a contributing editor for Firehouse Magazine writing the Fire Law column.
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