LAS VEGAS – The City of North Las Vegas is leading an effort to let people who live and work in Nevada but are not U.S. citizens patrol the streets.

Assembly Bill 30 came about when the city was trying to find new ways to hire more police officers.

“When we looked at what the state did for teachers in 2015, we thought, Why not do the same thing for police officers?” Jared Luke, who is in charge of government affairs for North Las Vegas, said.

About 140,000 people who live in Nevada but are not American citizens have the legal right to work in the U.S. This is in addition to the 12–15,000 people who have received DACA, which is an immigration policy that keeps young people from being deported and gives them work permits.

Luke said, “We’ve talked to a lot of groups that work with high school students and young adults, and there’s a huge interest in being a police officer.” “But there’s that wall that they can’t get over.”

The city of North Las Vegas was the first in the state to let non-citizens join their youth explorers program. This happened last year. Teens can learn about what it would be like to work in law enforcement through the program.

Since non-citizens have been able to join, there are more young adults in the program.

Police departments in Nevada and all over the country have had a hard time getting new officers because people are getting older and not interested in joining.

North Las Vegas leaders think that AB30 could help solve the problem if it gets passed by state lawmakers and signed by the governor this spring.

“When you talk about measures that help everyone. When you talk about fairness and chances. Luke said, “AB 30 kind of brings all of that together.”

This law has been used before. California and Utah, which are close to each other, both let non-citizens become police officers.

Credits: Fox 5 Vegas

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