Poll says Metro Police responsive, respectful

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

More than two-thirds of respondents to a local poll said they and family members have never been victims of a crime in Clark County.

Nearly three-quarters also said they had never been cited or taken into custody by Metro Police. But the majority of those who have been victimized by crime said Metro officers were responsive. An even greater majority of those who had been cited or arrested said police respected their rights.

Those findings were compiled in the Las Vegas Sun/Las Vegas 1 poll of Metro conducted by the UNLV Cannon Center for Survey Research. The random telephone poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, involved 401 adults who live in portions of the Las Vegas Valley covered by Metro. That excludes cities such as Henderson and North Las Vegas, which have their own police departments.

About 37 percent of the respondents who have lived in town at least five years -- compared with 18 percent of the newer residents -- said they or family members have been victims of crime in the county. A majority of all racial and ethnic groups answered that they had not been victimized, though that was less true of blacks -- 61 percent -- than the other respondents.

Of the 32 percent who said they or family members were victims of a local crime, nearly twice as many of those individuals rated Metro's response as good to excellent compared with those who gave police a fair to poor rating. About 59 percent of the people aged 63 and over gave Metro a good to excellent rating on this question, compared with 55 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34. Only 11 percent of the older respondents rated Metro fair to poor on this question, compared with 35 percent of the younger people.

Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller said his department is committed to treating all people equally.

"We have no tolerance for intolerance, no tolerance for bias, no tolerance for prejudice," he said.

Keller said he was pleased that 68 percent of respondents said they and family members had not been victims of crime in the county.

"I believe that's excellent in our community," Keller said. "Any time you have a population where 70 percent say they have not been a victim of any crime I believe that's outstanding.

"We understand some crime that occurs is unreported. But if people don't report crime we don't know where it's happening and we can't have our officers there the next time to intercede so we can be preventive. We ask everyone to report every crime, however minor or major, so that we can best ply our profession."

Pam Gallion, interim director of the Cannon Center, said Keller had a right to be pleased with the high percentage of respondents who said they and family members had not been victims of local crime.

"If I were Sheriff Keller, I would see that as a positive," Gallion said.

About 31 percent of the men and 21 percent of the women in the poll said they have been cited or taken into custody by Metro. About one-third of respondents aged 18 to 48 also answered they had been cited or taken into custody, compared with only 18 percent of the older people. Roughly 35 percent of the black respondents said they had been cited or taken into custody, compared with 24 percent of the whites polled, with Asian-Americans and Hispanics falling in between.

"Traffic is a big problem in this community," Keller said. "We write 600 citations a day through our traffic and patrol force for traffic-related offenses. We arrest about 150 to 200 people a day. So we're talking a negative enforcement encounter 800 times a day.

"What's most important here is that 73 percent of these people say no (they haven't been cited or arrested). That's three out of four people who have not had any negative enforcement contact with us. That's very, very positive."

Gallion, however, said she was a bit surprised that 26 percent of the respondents indicated they were cited or arrested by Metro.

"It's higher than I expected," she said. "When you project that out into the population at large it seems like a lot of people."

Of those who had been cited or taken into custody, 71 percent said their rights were respected by police. Women were more favorable toward Metro on this question than were men by a margin of 76 percent to 67 percent. Similarly, 77 percent of respondents aged 35 and older responded favorably, compared with 61 percent of the younger people.

Whites were most favorable at 74 percent, followed by Hispanics and Asian-Americans, 67 percent each, and blacks, 55 percent.

"Three out of four people that we either arrested or cited think we handled them fine, and I'm very pleased with that number," Keller said.

Gallion agreed that Keller should be pleased.

"It speaks well of Metro, probably more than any of the other questions," she said.