Department of Public Safety seeks funding for recruitment push, dispatch staffing and digital evidence capacity

The Nevada Department of Public Safety told the Legislative Commission's budget subcommittee that a national recruitment campaign has increased applicant volume for sworn positions but that the department still faces serious vacancies in dispatch and records-management positions that pose operational and safety risks.

Director George Tagliotti and senior fiscal staff said the department's 'All Stars' recruitment pilot, funded with one-time ARPA support, produced a 71 percent increase in sworn applicants year-over-year and helped produce more hires than separations in fiscal 2024 for the first time since 2017. But other essential functions ' especially 911 dispatch ' still report high vacancy rates.

What DPS asked for

The department presented several enhancement requests. Highlights include:

- Continued funding for the All Stars recruitment campaign and expansion of recruitment work to include dispatch positions and other hard-to-fill classifications. - Positions to speed background checks (additional background technician) and to support digital media/recruitment (digital media specialist). - Funding for a larger research and planning technology unit: two IT positions and a Web-based inventory system to manage statewide CAD, citation, body and in-car camera systems. - Evidence vault staffing and software upgrades, including one evidence specialist and a vehicle to move large evidentiary items in Las Vegas. - Digital forensics: additional staff and software for the digital forensic unit and to support cold-case work. - Highway Patrol fleet and equipment maintenance and telematics to track assets in real time. - Parole and Probation: caseload-ratio adjustments, two supervisory managers and funding to restore a state-funded house-arrest program; the division also asked for funds to help returning inmates with transition planning (Going Home Prepared grants). - Fire Marshal: an additional Fire and Life Safety Inspector for the north, an administrative assistant for the new Las Vegas office, restored training staff, and a DPS officer in Carson City to meet coverage demands.

Director Tagliotti and division chiefs told the committee that dispatch positions are especially difficult to fill because local agencies frequently pay higher wages for similar work, leaving state dispatchers covering overtime and creating burnout. The department has pursued stopgap measures such as traveling dispatch workers and administrative call-taking positions that do not require full dispatcher certification, but officials said a long-term solution requires competitive compensation and possibly reclassification.

Public-safety context and evidence work

DPS also described expanded partnerships: the Highway Patrol has worked with law enforcement and community partners on child-trafficking recoveries; the State Fire Marshal has added arson-detection dogs and entered an FBI cooperation agreement to take requests for fire services from tribal authorities; and the Division of Investigations is exploring an illicit-cannabis unit to pursue large-scale trafficking rather than retail street-level operations.

What lawmakers asked

Legislators sought detail on the dispatch vacancies, the equipment and vehicle needs of the State Fire Marshal and whether the department has been asked to make cuts in light of the governor's structural budget concerns; Tagliotti said no such direction had been given. The fire marshal and chiefs provided additional detail on childcare-facility inspections the division inherited when a county stopped performing them; the marshal said the division is stepping up inspections but needs additional inspectors to meet an annual-inspection statutory schedule.

Next steps

DPS told the committee it will return for deeper, division-specific hearings during session; lawmakers signaled interest in firm numbers on vacancy-driven risk and in how long-term staffing and pay reforms would be funded.