Keeping crime out of downtown

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1998 | 11:31 a.m.

Metro Police patrol officer Jason Cunningham represents the first line of defense in the Downtown Area Command's war on crime.

It is a war whose battles are fought in alleys, low-rent apartments and frequently on sidewalks, streets and in the doorways of businesses in full view of the public.

The enemy is primarily a force made up of street-level drug dealers and street walkers, gang members and petty thieves.

The victim in this war, ultimately, is downtown Las Vegas.

"In the daytime it's a pretty place," says Cunningham, 27, "but at night, it turns colors."

Cunningham and about 100 other downtown patrol officers work diligently to try to keep the crime under control in their eight-square-mile area -- but the war seems to be winless.

In 1997 the Downtown Area Command received 77,862 calls for service, according to Metro's Crime Analysis Unit, up from the previous year by more 1,300 when the area received 76,593 calls.

The calls included everything from stealing hub caps to murder.

Even though statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a decrease in the overall crime rate, the workloads of Cunningham and his fellow patrol officers don't reflect much change.

On an average, says Capt. Frank Barker, commander of the Downtown Area Command, officers respond to a call every eight minutes. That figure has remained fairly consistent since the command was created three years ago.

"But there have been decreases in calls for service in some downtown areas, such as Meadows Village," noted Barker.

Meadows, a low-income apartment complex, was the focus of an anti-crime sweep more than a year ago, when dozens of people were arrested on drug-related charges and other criminal activity.

Street walkers and drug dealers are the criminals who seem to be the most prominent in the downtown area, police officers who work the area say. They also were the focus of a new "order-out" city ordinance, one that allows judges to give prostitutes and drug dealers suspended sentences if they stay out of the area. If they violate the agreement and are seen in the order-out zone, they can be arrested and required to serve out their sentence.

Downtown is attractive to hookers and drug dealers for a number of reasons, police officers say, including low-rent apartments and hotels that are willing to rent rooms by the hour.

"Dealers, those who work the streets, are really frugal. They make a lot of money, but they don't spend it." Cunningham said.

For that reason, federally subsidized housing often becomes a haven to the dealers.

Barker says downtown has the highest concentration of street-level drug dealing in the valley.

"A third of our time is spent on drug-related crimes -- especially Fremont Street from Maryland Parkway on (east)," says Barker.

The officers who work these streets know the problem best. They get to know the drug dealers and prostitutes by sight, Cunningham said. So it stings when downtown business owners say they ignore drug deals and prostitution that goes on under their noses.

Attorney Janice Smith, whose law office is at 516 S. 6th St., was one of the people complaining about the crime situation, saying she and other business people in the neighborhood routinely saw drug dealings being made out in the open.

As a form of civil protest, she refused to buy a business license and was fined $500.

But, she says, she got her point across, and since the ensuing publicity, she has not seen any criminal activity in her office's neighborhood.

"It's moved two blocks over," she said.

The officers in the downtown unit know what they are up against, and they don't deny that sometimes their efforts just move the problem.

The issue, officers point out, is due process.

"We know they're dirty, and they know they're dirty," Cunningham said.

But unless they witness a drug deal or proposition being made -- or someone who witnessed it is willing to sign a complaint -- police hands are tied.

"Officers are required to have reasonable suspicion to stop individuals and question them, and they are required to have probable cause before an arrest is made," Barker said.

Criminals quickly spot marked cars and quit conducting their business when one approaches, even though a civilian may have seen something illegal.

"Drug dealers are tuned in to the black and whites," said Barker, noting that pagers and pay phones are the tools of the trade of street drug dealers -- the devices enable drug transactions to be put together and carried out in minutes.

If the drug dealers and prostitutes can't be arrested, Barker admitted, "then probably what we do is move them around."

But even that is a help, he said, because then they have to re-establish themselves someplace else. That in itself acts as a deterrent.

Downtown cops may not be able to make all the arrests they would like, but they are able to use their presence as a weapon.

"We can make life miserable for a prostitute by constantly being around," Cunningham said. "It will hurt their business, but it's not going to stop them."

But with the volume of calls downtown, keeping up that pressure of presence can be tough.

One recent Saturday night, Metro received a call of young people dealing drugs under a bridge northeast of downtown. The call came from a security guard in a low-rent apartment complex.

Cunningham arrived at the bridge within two minutes of the call, but the suspects had vanished.

Another call came in. Someone was stealing tires off a truck.

Again, when Cunningham arrived, the suspects were gone, and the truck was nowhere to be found.

The calls don't seem to let up -- a typical Saturday night for Cunningham.

While he's out of the patrol car responding to one call, more calls stack up on the computer screen attached to the dashboard.

It seems overwhelming, but Metro can't afford to see it that way, said Barker.

"I don't want us to develop the attitude of being victims," he said, "I mean the attitude that we can't do something about it."

They do all they can, and more than is often evident, said Barker.

"We arrest them by the dozens," he said. "(Officers) constantly respond to calls for service and take proactive measures to improve the quality of life in the downtown area.

"The men and women (officers) that work the downtown area do not tolerate illegal activity," said Barker. It just seems that there never are enough of them. And that's an ongoing problem across the valley.

"We have vacancies we haven't been able to fill," said Barker, "positions authorized through the ballot. We haven't been able to hire and train them."

The main reason, he said, is a lack of qualified applicants.

"Being short-handed hurts us," said Cunningham, who has been with the department a little more than a year. "We may be about to take someone to jail and (dispatch) calls that an officer needs help. We have to let the (suspect) go to back up the officer. That's the most important thing."

That was the case on the recent typical Saturday night.

He listened to three separate high-speed chases on his radio and each time rushed toward the chase to support his co-workers, only to pull back and return to his assigned sector when it was determined there were enough units on the scene.

"You have no clue what's around the corner," said Cunningham as a call came in about a stolen car approaching the area of Bonanza Road and Decatur Boulevard headed toward downtown.

"He's coming right at us," Cunningham said as he turned on the emergency lights and siren and raced toward the oncoming car, which still was not visible.

Suddenly the stolen car turned and went in another direction into another command area, and Cunningham shut off the lights and siren and answered another call. Other officers were already in the chase and there was no need for Cunningham to continue.

A mentally ill man angry at his mother stabbed himself several times in the arm with the point of a knife -- not life-threatening but a situation that took up 10 minutes as calls continued stacking up.

"You have to be careful about becoming complacent," said Cunningham. "We get a lot of calls."

There is an adrenaline rush at every turn, a rush that some find addictive.

"I don't run after the adrenaline rush," said Cunningham, "but you don't have to look for it. It's there."

Sometimes when he goes home, he says, he's wired.

"If you aren't careful, the job can take over your life," he said.

Another call.

Gang bangers, members of a gang, are crashing a party at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 705 Las Vegas Blvd. North, the radio says.

The desperate manager of the private club says 200 Latino gang members have suddenly appeared at a birthday party for a girl who just turned 16.

Cunningham calls for backup by other patrol officers. And he calls for the anti-gang gang unit, a special squad that focuses on gang activity in the county.

Once they arrive, Cunningham saw that there weren't 200 gang members, but there were enough for the police to be concerned about potential danger.

They told the party crashers to file outside, where they were questioned and searched.

A few admitted to being gang members. Their pictures were taken for police records, and a card was filled out identifying each person.

One was found with the 8-inch long handle of a torque wrench down the front of his pants.

He said he lost the door key to his car and used it to get inside.

But a few more questions revealed that he didn't have a car, and the tool is commonly used by car thieves to break the window of a car to get inside and hotwire it.

Cunningham took the suspect to jail.

Even though he catches heat from people on both sides of the law, Cunningham likes being a cop.

"It's everything I thought it would be, and more," he said. "It's the whole package -- fun and exciting and people look to me for help."

In the downtown area, there is a concentration of shelters for the homeless, and though it isn't a crime to be homeless, it still is a problem for police.

Transients become victims of crime, or they become involved in petty crimes. And their presence is a problem for businesses and public health.

Las Vegas' Department of Neighborhood Services and a private, non-profit organization made up of downtown business people and residents, have joined forces to address the issues of crime and general deterioration of downtown.

The city agency and the Downtown Central Development Corporation are developing a strategic plan that city officials will use to revitalize the downtown area.

Kathy Somers, of Neighborhood Services, said in January a newly formed planning committee made up of members the Downtown Central Development Corporation will begin collecting data and setting goals with the intention of reversing the downward spiral of downtown.

Because of the complexity of the issues, Somers said, it may take a year to finalize the plan.

"The planning team will make recommendations in such areas as land use, housing, crime and social services," she said.

"We've had three public meetings in three downtown areas to share with the community the great opportunities for DCDC participants," said Karen Zaustinsky, executive director of the Downtown Central Development Corporation.

The purpose of the meetings is to recruit people who will serve on the committee that will create the strategic plan, with the help of Neighborhood Services.

"We are the facilitator," explained Somers.

Subcommittees will address specific issues.

Crime is such a high-priority item that a subcommittee already has formed for that problem.

"It's critical," said Zaustinsky.

To many, crime is the major issue.

A group of business owners in the downtown area have formed the "Downtown Business Response Committee," whose goal is to drive away the prostitutes, drug dealers and vagrants who are driving away customers.

The committee, made up of about two dozen business owners and security directors, is in the early stages of development. It plans to work closely with police in finding ways to clean up the downtown district.

Zaustinsky says when Downtown Central Development Committee's planning committee is formed, the problems of the homeless also will be taken into consideration.

"We are looking for diversity," she said, noting that there would be homeless advocates, mental health advocates and people aware of prostitution and drug issues among those shaping the plan to revitalize downtown.

Capt. Barker likes the idea of organizations forming to support the department's fight against crime, and he has assigned a number of officers to work directly with any group that wants their help.

"The DCDC is a good step in addressing the problem," said Barker.

He can use all the help he can get.

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