Metro has its own New Year’s package

Jace Radke

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999 | 11:26 a.m.

The extravagant millennium packages offered by Strip megaresorts have nothing on the Metro Police Department's version that includes handcuffs, a special one-way bus ride to Pecos and Bonanza roads and possibly a long, cold walk home.

As part of Metro's plan for dealing with New Year's Eve crowds, rowdy revelers arrested on Las Vegas Boulevard will be bused to an outdoor booking area at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center.

"Once they are out there and they've been processed, they're on their own to find a way home," Metro Capt. Doug Gillespie said. "I don't think we'll see them back on the Strip that night. It's a long walk from Pecos and Bonanza."

The busing and outdoor booking area are just part of the culmination of two years of planning that Metro Police say have them ready to handle the hordes of people expected to make Las Vegas party central on Dec. 31.

It's a plan that police, city and county officials put through a dry run today in a tabletop exercise at the Clark County Government Center. The group was to run through detailed scenarios and make sure they know how to respond to possible problems.

Estimates on the numbers expected to descend on Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street vary, but Gillespie, who will be in command of The Strip from Flamingo to Spring Mountain Road on New Year's, said police are planning for a big crowd.

"If it's just the regular 250,000 to 300,000 great, but we're not planning on that," Gillespie said. "We don't want anyone to start getting the idea that it's going to be a small crowd."

Metro will put 900-plus officers on and around Las Vegas Boulevard starting about 6 p.m. on Dec. 31, Deputy Chief Mike Zagorski said. About 180 officers will be assigned to downtown and the Fremont Street Experience, and 260 officers will be handling the normal calls for service in the rest of the city, Zagorski said.

The 260 officers handling calls for service are more than the department usually has working, ensuring all of the city's neighborhoods full police coverage and response, Zagorski said.

Also lending a hand in neighborhoods will be the Nevada Highway Patrol, which will handle all accident and traffic related calls in the city on Dec. 31 and into Jan. 1, Gillespie said.

Henderson and North Las Vegas will also help pick up patrol slack in Las Vegas, Sheriff Jerry Keller said.

"We'll have 30 Henderson officers and 15 North Las Vegas officers paired up with our officers patrolling the boundary areas between the cities," Keller said. "It will give us some overlapping coverage. The crooks don't care where the boundaries are that night, and neither will we."

The key to the department's plan to effectively handle the predicted biggest crowd of the night on The Strip revolves around a few miles of metal barricading on its way to Las Vegas from Mesquite.

The barricades, which are basically cattle guards, will be set up along the curbs on both sides of Las Vegas Boulevard about noon on Dec. 31 and will stretch from Spring Mountain to Russell Road.

"We talked to the New York Police Department about how they have controlled crowds, and they said barricades," Gillespie said. "We used it last year from Spring Mountain to Flamingo and it was the best New Year's we've had, so we're extending it this year."

The barricades will provide an area for officers to regroup, and create easy lanes of access to allow for emergency vehicles, reserve officers and the department's mounted patrol to move up and down The Strip.

Fifteen lieutenants will be spread along Las Vegas Boulevard, which police will divide into three areas: Sahara Avenue to Spring Mountain, Spring Mountain to Flamingo and Flamingo to Russell. Each area will be supervised by a captain who will report to Zagorski in the county's emergency operations center.

More than 500 officers will be assigned between Sahara and Flamingo, and about 300 will be stationed from Flamingo south to Russell. About 100 traffic officers will also be stationed near Las Vegas Boulevard.

Special precautions are being taken where Flamingo and Tropicana intersect Las Vegas Boulevard, because those two spots are where much of the fighting and violence have taken place on past New Year's.

Ground zero for violence and fighting in the past has been just north of Flamingo in front of O'Sheas casino, but Keller said that won't happen this year.

"That has definitely become a hot spot," Keller said. "It's not quite fight city down there, but from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. it's pretty close. We are working with them (O'Sheas) and all the properties, and I'm confident we can handle it."

Cheap alcohol, a large crowd and the proximity of O'Sheas' bar to the casino's front door may be contributing to the fights that seem to break out in the area. Police did not want to disclose their specific plans for the area, saying they aren't finalized.

Nine Clark County Detention Center buses will be waiting along Las Vegas Boulevard to give those arrested the promised ride to Pecos and Bonanza.

"We've used the same area as an outdoor booking center before, and it worked well," Gillespie said, citing the 1984 arrests of Culinary Union members. "I expect the processing will be a pretty lengthy process, because we're going to make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed."

One of the buses will be stationed near the Circus Circus hotel-casino and another behind Gameworks to pick up any teenagers breaking the 6 p.m. curfew on The Strip that night. Also at 6 p.m. no glass bottles or aluminum cans will be allowed on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Four MASH medical aid stations will be set up along the Strip, and Keller says Metro's SWAT and tactical teams will be on standby, although they are not expected to be needed.

The crowd will dictate when Las Vegas Boulevard is shut down, but Gillespie anticipates that the roadway will be closed to traffic no later than 9 p.m.

"This isn't going to be like the recent crowds in Seattle, where you saw police lobbing tear gas into a crowd," Gillespie said. "That's not going to happen. The crowd will get tired, and we'll wait them out, slowly retaking Las Vegas Boulevard."

Once the crowd is dispersed, police are anticipating another two nights of possible crowd problems, citing the room packages that have visitors staying in town three and four nights.

"There are going to be a lot of people who are not only staying in the hotels, but those who just want to come and party and end up sleeping in their cars or in parks," Keller said. "That's something we'll have to deal with.

"Then on Sunday we'll be expecting major gridlock and traffic problems to the airport and along Interstate 15 to California."

Metro has canceled all days off during the weekend and officers will be working in 12-hour-on, 12-hour-off shifts.

"That first night I'm hoping we can release the officers on Las Vegas Boulevard at 5 a.m., but there are no promises," Gillespie said. "We'll be ready to be out there and do it all over again on Saturday if need be, and if it looks like fewer officers will be needed we'll work from there."

Keller jokingly told residents at the Southeast area substation Tuesday night that if a Y2K-related technology problem arises, he has another plan.

"I'll be watching TV at 9 p.m., and if New York blinks off, my wife and I are heading to Utah," Keller said.

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