Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Committee Member

David Tanenhaus

Second Committee Member

Todd Robinson

Third Committee Member

Jeff Schauer

Fourth Committee Member

Michael Green

Fifth Committee Member

Ralph Buechler

Number of Pages

97

Abstract

This thesis examines the creation of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1973 and its impact on the War on Crime. The first chapter examines the significance of race and policing in Las Vegas from the early twentieth century until the consolidation of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Las Vegas Police Department in 1973. Chapter 2 then analyzes how the federal government’s so-called War on Crime played out at the local and state level in Nevada from 1973 to 1985. The thesis argues that this period witnessed a punitive turn in policing that had long-term consequences for Las Vegas and its residents. Drawing on a range of primary sources, which include newspaper articles, trial records, and manuscript collections at Lied Library, the thesis analyzes some of these consequences on ordinary people through the lens of race, gender, and class. As the thesis demonstrates, these years marked the transition from the remnants of the Jim Crow Era to what Michelle Alexander famously labeled as the New Jim Crow.

Keywords

Black Police Officers; Civil Rights; Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department; Law Enforcement Assistance Administration; Modern Police Force; War on Crime

Disciplines

United States History

File Format

pdf

File Size

900 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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