Freshman Orientation: Assemblyman Toby Yurek made police work his ministry

As in legislative sessions past, The Nevada Independent is publishing a series of profiles featuring the new lawmakers in the state. This is the ninth installment of more than a dozen. Check back in coming days for additional stories on new legislators' backgrounds, interests and policy positions.

ASSEMBLYMAN TOBY YUREK

• The freshman Republican born in Las Vegas succeeds Republican Assemblywoman Annie Black, who did not seek re-election and made an unsuccessful bid for the Congressional District 4 seat.
• Represents District 19, which includes the eastern part of Henderson and stretches farther east past Lake Mead and Moapa Valley.
• District 19 leans Republican (22 percent of active voters were registered as Democrats, 43 percent were Republican, 28 percent were nonpartisan and 7 percent were registered to other parties in the 2022 election).
• Yurek won after he defeated three Republican candidates in the primary with 42 percent of the vote. He faced no opposition in the 2022 general election.
• The longtime member of law enforcement sits on three committees: Commerce and Labor, Judiciary and Natural Resources.

Family and Education

Thaddeus “Toby” Yurek III, 49, was born in Anchorage, Alaska and spent most of his childhood in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. In 1988, he moved to Henderson and graduated from Valley High School in 1991.

After committing to Christianity in high school, Yurek attended Hope International University and obtained a bachelor's degree in church growth with an emphasis on preaching because he said he had a passion for informing people about God.

“Through my [undergraduate] experience, I recognized that there's a need for ministry outside of the church,” he said.

Yurek returned to school and earned a master's degree in criminal justice, thinking he would one day teach the subject at a private Christian college. Instead, he went on to earn a law degree at the William Boyd School of Law at UNLV. Now he co-owns a law firm.

He said he enjoys camping, hunting and spending time with his wife Carrie and their three sons.

Career

When Yurek graduated with a bachelor's degree in occupational church ministry, he immediately applied for jobs at churches and police departments. He said he had the desire to pursue both careers, and perhaps follow in the footsteps of his father, who was a police officer.

“I applied for churches across the country and applied for two police departments and prayed ‘God, make it clear, wherever you want me,”' he said. “And literally, not one church replied and both police departments offered me a job. So it became very clear to me that was going to be my calling and [I] absolutely loved it.”

He said he brought his faith with him as a police officer and found his ministry was mostly devoted to colleagues. He said drug dependency, divorce and suicide are “exceptionally high” in law enforcement and that he lost at least three friends who were cops to suicide.

After working two decades in policing, Yurek says his favorite position was commander of the Tactical Response Bureau where he led SWAT operations at the Henderson Police Department. He said the job ranged from serving high-risk search warrants for “typical suicidal, criminal, hostage, barricade” situations, to assisting the Secret Service in protecting dignitaries, such as President Barack Obama, in a motorcade.

“I was going to be a pastor and serve in the local church,” he said. “I had a calling and was able to serve in law enforcement for a lot of years.”

Yurek retired from the Henderson Police Department in 2015 to focus on his law firm, which primarily helps first responders navigate the workers' compensation system.

Profile

Yurek said he never had ambitions of becoming a politician and that he was encouraged to run for the Assembly seat by friends. He said the role aligns with his desire to serve. Now that his law firm can run without him, Yurek said the timing plus his background uniquely positions him for the job.

He called himself a “genuine conservative Christian” who lives a life based on “Judeo-Christian values.” He said his goal at the Legislature is to serve his district “honorably and well.”

“​​My political ambitions at this point begin and end in the Nevada Legislature,” Yurek said.

Yurek said his experience as a law enforcement officer gave him knowledge on how policies work on a day-to-day basis and insight on leadership. He continues his work in law enforcement at different agencies by teaching officers about the Fourth Amendment, which protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures.

“It governs a lot of the day-to-day activities of police officers,” he said. “When and how you can stop an individual. When and how you can search an individual. When and how you can effect an arrest on an individual.”

He said one of his motivations for running is to create public policies that ensure first responders feel supported by the state.

On The Issues

Public safety

Yurek wants to create a deferred retirement option program (DROP) for law enforcement officers who want to retire and continue working with the department. As the officer continues to work, they will continue investing in the new DROP account, along with the Public Employees' Retirement System.

“It's really designed to incentivize officers to stick around longer, to lend the agencies their experience and expertise for a longer period of time,” he said. “And limit the number of vacancies that these law enforcement agencies are having trouble recruiting and filling for.”

He is also working to clarify human trafficking policies so they support sex workers who are victimized by human trafficking and impose specific ramifications on people who “engage in soliciting prostitution.”

“That way we can address the issue of human trafficking and the challenges that are coming from the demand side with johns,” he said.

Yurek also said he plans to look into restorative justice policies, which he said are well-intentioned but sometimes prioritize the needs of individuals who break the law over residents who abide by it.

Education

Yurek plans to support legislation to help the “broken” public school system. He said because he's a “free market kind of guy,” he supports school choice vouchers, believing that when people have more options “things tend to improve.”

“Public education challenges – right now – remain a huge issue for my constituents in my district, and so that absolutely will be something that I am interested in,” he said.

He said one of his policies focuses on restructuring the election and appointment of school district trustees, building on concepts in AB255, a bill that stalled last session. The changes would require four trustees to win an election for their seats while the remaining three seats would change and be filled by appointed trustees — one selected by the county commissioners and the other two by the city councils in the most populous cities.

He also will seek funding for a feasibility study to research the potential benefits of creating a northeastern Clark County School District for students in Moapa Valley, Mesquite, Overton and Logandale. Yurek said the district would be able to apply for things such as grants designated for rural school districts.

Miscellaneous

Yurek wants to pursue a policy that would create an “election integrity unit” to protect elections from fraud and restore trust.

Yurek also plans to support the spouses of veterans who have died. He said he will seek a policy that will extend the Nevada Disabled Veteran property tax exemption to the spouses of non-disabled veterans. Existing policy only includes the spouses of veterans injured or killed on the job.