1st Black Vegas officer role model ‘for people of any color’

By RIO YAMAT
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Family, friends and law enforcement will gather Thursday in Las Vegas to remember the city’s first Black police officer. Herman Moody died last month at age 98. Moody joined the Las Vegas police force in 1946, when the city was heavily segregated. The department today credits Moody for helping improve its standards at a time when it didn’t have a police academy. Moody read countless books about policing and trained other Black officers throughout his career. But racial segregation meant his police work largely was confined to the historic westside, where Black families were forced to live and work. Even after the city integrated, Moody chose to stay in the neighborhood where he built his home and raised his family. He retired in 1977 as a detective.