Keeping the Peace: Officer Rick Nogues and the Las Vegas Police Department Spread Love at EDC

At first glance, you might not see many similarities between EDC Headliners and officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Look one deeper, though, and the parallels reveal themselves. Both demographics put on uniforms—whether it’s furry boots and tutus or blue shirts and badges—to attend EDC, and both groups are invested in maintaining a safe, PLUR-influenced environment during the festival.

Of course, it takes a special kind of police officer to see this overlap. In Las Vegas, that person is Officer Rick Nogues.

Handsome and desert tan, Nogues is a 17-year veteran of the force and the head of event planning for the LVMPD. When event organizers hire the department to assist with safety and crowd control, he is at the helm. In Las Vegas, a world destination for people of all breeds, such large-scale happenings—festivals, rallies, professional fights, parades and more—fill the calendar year-round. Upwards of 300,000 people descend on Vegas during any given weekend.

The LVMPD was first exposed to EDC when Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella invited Vegas officers to attend one of the Wonderland festivals in Southern California.

“When our folks came back from visiting,” Nogues says, “they were very impressed with the Insomniac staff, how they did their jobs, their professionalism—and I think even more impressed with the crowds.”

Nogues heard reports, however, that local law enforcement had been stern and standoffish, very much embodying the stereotypical “us vs. them” approach demonstrated by officials at many events. When EDC moved to Las Vegas in 2011, he decided his approach would be different.

“We took a look at that and said, ‘How about if we go into the event and enjoy what we’re doing there and really open up with the crowd?’”

Several hundred officers are on-site at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during each day of EDC, overseeing everything from traffic to crowd control at the individual stages (undercover narcotics officers also patrol the grounds). Nogues instructs his team to be friendly with crowds, pose for pictures, and act as an extension of the spirit of revelry that EDC is famous for. Facebook and Instagram are rich with images of smiling officers trading kandi and shaking hands with Headliners. Nowadays, Nogues says staff members—officers who see all varieties of violence during their daily beats—routinely request to be assigned to EDC.

What stood out for me, from the very first event that we worked, was the relationship a hundred-plus-thousand people could have with each other.

“In our briefings each day before the team goes out on-site, my sergeant and lieutenant tell [officers] to enjoy the crowd. Walk around, have fun, shake hands. If they want to give you beads, if they want to hug you, if they want to take pictures with you, enjoy it.”

For the LVMPD, EDC planning begins eight months before the event. Officers participate in “tabletop exercises,” during which they run through response tactics for potential emergency scenarios. Such planning was put into motion in 2012, when high winds forced EDC to shut down during the second night.

“I wouldn’t say that we handled it perfectly,” Nogues says, “but we were much further ahead of the game.”

Nogues also works closely with Las Vegas hotels, keeping tabs on various events on the Strip during EDC Week and monitoring citywide crowd flow throughout the weekend. He calls Headliners one of the friendliest, most responsible crowds his team has ever encountered, and he notes there are significantly fewer incidents of fighting and violence among Headliners than in comparably sized crowds.

“What stood out for me from the very first event that we worked,” he says, “was the relationship a hundred-plus-thousand people could have with each other. That really helps us with this event—that it’s almost a huge family.”

The LVMPD is also setting the standard nationwide. Law enforcement agencies in other EDC host cities have contacted Nogues for pointers. And last year, officers preparing for EDC Chicago came to watch and learn in Vegas.

A few years ago, Nogues had never heard of EDC; he has now been to the event three years running and even keeps a kandi bracelet on his office desk. “I just thought it was really personal,” he says, reaching for the trinket, “for somebody to actually take the time to make it and bring it to an event.”

The message on the kandi bracelet is simple, yet it sums up perfectly the symbiotic relationship between EDC and Nogues’ team: “We love the LVMPD.”