Detective Sergeant Riback is a Las Vegas police officer whose religious renaissance, personal struggles, and public service have made him a warrior for good in the battle of Light against Darkness
Detective Sergeant Steve Riback aka the “Kosher Cop” fought the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for the right to wear a beard and yarmulke on duty (Photos: Tonya Harvey Family archives)
D etective Sergeant Steve Riback of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department calls himself the “Kosher Cop” and it’s not just due to his dietary restrictions or to the years-long court battle he waged against the department to accommodate his First Amendment religious rights to wear a beard and yarmulke on duty. In “Sin City” — the cash and casino capital of the world — being a high-profile Orthodox Jewish cop means giving a moral compass to this city of high-stakes gambling and all the vices that go with it.
“Well some people say there are more people praying to G-d in this town than in Jerusalem” Riback says. And that was before the terrifying spray of gunfire three weeks ago that left 58 concert-goers dead and hundreds more injured relegating the victims’ families and the citizens of this town to find some meaning and consolation in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
The overtly Orthodox detective sergeant says he wasn’t in a position to have deep religious conversations with other officers after the killings but there is a certain comfort in knowing there is a high-ranking officer with a strong spiritual core at a time when so many feel lost emotionally and spiritually.
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