Reggie Rader remembers when Las Vegas ended at Sunset Road, giving way to endless stretches of undeveloped desert.
He recalls outings with friends, when they would cross the street from his home near Jones Boulevard and Twain Avenue to build forts in the sand and hunt for lizards.
The family moved to Henderson when Rader was in middle school. He’d often play in pickup basketball games at a local park, and one day hewitnessed an unexpected conflagration.
In August 1993, Rader stood with a group of neighborhood kids at the corner of Valle Verde Drive and Wigwam Parkway, watching in fascination as flames engulfed the towering Stratosphere under construction on the Las Vegas Strip. For three hours, the structure blazed like “a giant roman candle” against the desert sky — a spectacle that would become part of his collection of memories documenting Southern Nevada’s dramatic transformation.
The region has changed almost beyond recognition since Rader’s childhood, yet he’s never imagined calling anywhere else home.
Now as Henderson’s new chief of police, he has the opportunity to serve the community that shaped him.
The 45-year-old Rader, a former deputy chief with Metro Police, was sworn into office last month.
“The responsibility that I’ve been entrusted with by not only the city leadership but by the community and what they expect in their police chief, I don’t take that lightly,” Rader said. “Every single decision that I make, everything that happens here, everything that I say, it’s with the intent to make this department successful and this city successful for decades to come.”
Rader said his interest in law enforcement began with his mother, a Child Protective Services worker who intervened on behalf of abused children. During holidays, she would bring Rader and his sister to Child Haven, a licensed children’s shelter supported by Clark County, to donate toys and witness their Christmas activities, he said.
Her commitment sometimes meant answering calls for home visits in the early morning hours — a level of devotion to helping others that would shape his own sense of purpose.
That experience “instilled in me at an early age” the importance of public service, Rader said. His interest in law enforcement further took root through a different influence: He “just fell in love” with policing after growing up watching shows like “T.J. Hooker,” the William Shatner police drama that ran through the 1980s.
A Metro Police detective who worked on assignments with Rader’s mother told him about the department’s cadet program for 18-year-olds. In 1998, just a week after graduating from Green Valley High School, Rader entered the program.
That paved the way for a 27-year career with Metro, where he served as captain of the Organizational Development Bureau, overseeing the Police Academy and Field Training, and later as captain of the southeast area command, leading efforts to reduce violent crime and officer-involved shootings.
Rader had a storied career with Metro, including receiving the department’s Medal of Valor — the highest law enforcement honor. He received the honor for his heroic response to a 2016 domestic violence call, during which the suspect opened fire on officers, striking the patrol car they were using for cover. Rader and his colleagues are credited with saving the lives of both nearby residents and the suspect’s family members.
He additionally helped establish the Incident Command System after the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip that resulted in 60 deaths and left hundreds wounded.
Most recently, Rader was deputy chief that oversaw more than 400 commissioned and civilian employees working in areas such as community engagement, counterterrorism and youth outreach.
His sections covered cases like the Cybertruck explosion at Trump Tower on Jan. 1.
Rader replaced Hollie Chadwick, who was fired in March.
“We are so pleased to have (Rader) here. He fits the bill. He has the leadership qualities and collaboration that we’re looking for to develop our team and lead us into the future,” City Manager Stephanie Garcia-Vause said during Rader’s swearing-in ceremony in July. “Community safety truly is a team effort, and I am excited for this new chapter and look forward to continued collaboration as we work together to keep Henderson one of the safest cities in America.”
Transparency tops Rader’s priority list — a commitment he emphasized in his speech at the swearing-in ceremony. He told the Sun that Henderson was one of the fastest-growing cities in America, and its police department — the state’s second largest — needs to be modernized to better serve the city’s expanding population.
The department still has some aspects “that are still kind of like a small-town police department,” Rader said, but those need to evolve as the city continues its rapid growth.
“Police reform isn’t a bad word, and it really shouldn’t be. Police reform just means we derive our authority from the public, and if we ever get to a point where we’re doing things that the public is not OK with, there needs to be some checks and balances there,” Rader said. “For me, police reform just means that we’re looking at all of our processes and doing it the right way. We’re a learning agency and we have to continue to learn to do things better.”
Since taking his position, Rader has met with officers and said he discovered they feel disconnected from leadership and were starved for collaboration opportunities, with former supervisors providing little presence or support.
Those conversations are already driving change. Rader plans to increase transparency between the police department and the public, foster more training partnerships with other local law enforcement agencies and strengthen internal investigations of critical incidents like officer-involved shootings.
He also hopes to work with the city to address other underlying issues — such as poverty — that might contribute to criminal activity by implementing social programs, which Rader believes Southern Nevada is “perfectly situated” to support.
“That’s where we’re truly winning as a city. That’s when the quality of life is improving for everybody; that’s when the police are going to have more free time because they’re not going to be arresting those individuals; instead, they’ll be throwing the ball with kids at a park,” Rader said. “So, that’s really what I’m looking at for reform. It’s not just policing policy tactics, it’s really the whole picture, and working with all the resources we have here as a city.”
Rader hopes that, with a little bit of leadership, guidance and support, the police department he fell in love with all those years ago can become an even better support system for Henderson’s residents.
He has the support of the city, his officers and the police unions at his back, he said.
“We’re excited to have one of our hometown sons be at the helm of our police department,” Mayor Michelle Romero said to Rader at his July swearing-in ceremony. “I look forward to the changes you talked about, I look forward to the open communication and for the things that you will bring with the experience you’ve had in our sister jurisdiction. I think it will be a great addition to our department, and I look forward to what you will bring to the table.”
