UNLV Special Collections provides copies of materials to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. Material not in the public domain may be used according to fair use of copyrighted materials as defined by copyright law. Please cite us.
Please note that UNLV may not own the copyright to these materials and cannot provide permission to publish or distribute materials when UNLV is not the copyright holder. The user is solely responsible for determining the copyright status of materials and obtaining permission to use material from the copyright holder and for determining whether any permissions relating to any other rights are necessary for the intended use, and for obtaining all required permissions beyond that allowed by fair use.
Read more about our reproduction and use policy.
I agree.Part of an interview with Greg McCurdy by Claytee White on August 31, 2013. McCurdy talks about one of his mentors, Herman Moody, the first African American police officer in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Greg McCurdy oral history interview, 2013 March 07 and 2013 August 21. OH-01245. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
English
So you're going to talk to me today about the first black person to join the police department in Las Vegas. So to say it that way...sometimes it's disputed if he was the first. But what he was specifically was the first one who lasted, with any tenure; meaning, he spent 31 years here to be exact, Herman Moody. Herman L. Moody started in 1946 with the old City of Las Vegas Police Department. I remember the stories where he would have to oftentimes work by himself without a partner. He didn't work in areas other than areas where blacks lived and/or played. Couldn't arrest white people back then at that time. Then, of course, as time progressed and the city started to grow and mature a bit, then he was able to work in other areas. But I could just envision him back in 1946-1947, a good-looking man out of the United States Navy, after having served in World War II and proud, loved his people, loved his family. So when I had talked to him about how he policed, he policed from a position which we now ironically try to use in policing called community (ordered) policing. That was just the way he did policing; it wasn't a special name to it; it wasn't some phrase someone had to coin. It was getting to know the people in the neighborhood, building trust with people, and having people come to you when something has occurred. That's why he was effective. In time, because of his effectiveness, when an opportunity came he was put into the Detective Bureau. He actually retired from the Detective Bureau. But on his way to the Detective Bureau, I know he had to stop in the traffic because I saw pictures of him with his motorcycle gear, riding a police motorcycle.