Wesley Duncan, candidate for the State Attorney General seat stopped in Ely for a quick visit with local law enforcement on Wednesday.
Duncan’s biggest theme is mental health and he’s doing this statewide round table to discern common issues and best practices that could eventually evolve into statewide policy.
Right now, if someone is having a mental health crisis, people call 911, and in the rural areas, the person usually ends up in the emergency room, or jail.
Duncan feels those aren’t the best practices for those people, and there are options that he would like to implement that are already in use in other parts of Nevada.
Duncan feels the attorney general is the first and foremost top law enforcement officer in the state.
“I tell people my background, being an Iraq war veteran, a current air force reservist, former prosecutor, and prior First Assistant to Attorney General Adam Laxalt, I have the passion and experience,” he said. “When I get up every day I focus on wanting to keep all our communities across the state safe.”
Duncan spent the last two and a half years as first assistant Attorney General, gaining a lot of experience on how the office runs, the budget of the office, and how the staff operate.
“I care about the office,” he said. “I came to Nevada because I was a Air Force Judge advocate, I won state assembly seat, won by a really long shot race, was re-elected but then was asked by Attorney General, Adam Laxalt to serve as Assistant Attorney General.”
Duncan discussed the three main areas of focus in his first term if elected. Duncan wants to deal with the mental health crisis in the state, “I want to make sure the Attorney General’s office can use settlement funds, non-tax payer dollars to try to stand up psychiatric hospitals in this state. I know that there’s a need for that in this community.”
Duncan used Carson City’s Mallory Crisis Behavioral Center as a model he’d like to follow. It is a psychiatric ER type of model, and they work with local law enforcement, to really help people to get where they need to go.
“We’re not just throwing them in jail or leaving them in the ER. We’re helping them get the help they need. I would like to see the AG’s office help to get the seed money for that,” Duncan said. .
His second focus is violent crime across the state. He expressed that he wants to be a proactive AG who is looking at problems before they happen instead of being reactive.
“I want to partner with the faith community, law enforcement, healthcare, for profit, and try to do after school programs and catch kids before they get into the system, reach out and establish trust with law enforcement and the communities where there is a high murder or drug rate, and address helpless,” he said. “I think addressing helpless is vital.”
The final area Duncan wants to focus on is domestic violence. “We are the third worst state for men killing women,” he said. “I think that statistically, we need to work on, maybe use Attorney General money to provide transitional housing for women, and sometimes men who find themselves in volatile situations.”
Duncan has already received quite a few endorsements from state wide sheriff’s, including White Pine. “I think that says that they trust me to be the top law enforcement official for the state.”
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