‘Order-out’ crime zone expanded

Erin Neff

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Small-time drug dealers and hookers got pushed a bit farther from downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday after the City Council unanimously expanded a corridor that bans street criminals.

But expansion of the "order-out" corridor came amid charges the program violates constitutional rights and does little but shift crime to other areas.

"As you continue to expand these order-out corridors ... you raise very serious First Amendment issues," said Gary Peck, executive director of Nevada's American Civil Liberties Union.

"This is just a dopey policy," Peck added in his remarks prior to the council's vote. "This is just moving these problems out of sight, and hopefully out of mind."

The order-out zone allows prostitutes and drug criminals a chance to suspend their sentences if they promise to stay out of the corridor for up to one year. If they are found in the corridor, they face jail time.

The original zone, created in 1996 at the request of Metro Police and Councilman Gary Reese, covered Fremont Street between Eastern Avenue and Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard between Main and Seventh Street. It was expanded in 1998 roughly to include Washington Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.

The expansion of the zone Wednesday added the areas between I-15 and Main Street from Bonneville Avenue to Charleston and the area between I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard from Charleston to Sahara.

It also included the area east of Atlantic Avenue, north of Sahara and south and west of Fremont Street and Boulder Highway -- in and around the Showboat hotel-casino.

Metro Police Lt. Randy Montandon disagreed with Peck that the corridor simply moves criminals around.

"We're trying to take away the prime location for prostitution and narcotics sales," Montandon said.

If criminals are moved out of high-crime areas, they are more easily detected when they try to ply their trade in areas with more residences and scrutiny, Montandon said.

"They're going to go somewhere else," he added. "Hopefully out of the state."

Reese said he thinks the order-out corridor is "just an added tool for the police officers."

Mayor Oscar Goodman asked why the police don't simply crack down on the criminals by arresting them and locking them up.

But Montandon said having the order-out corridor actually gives police more reason to make arrests.

Then, saying that redevelopment plans hinge on the successful reduction of street crimes downtown, Goodman proposed "putting their tails in jail."

Councilman Lawrence Weekly said he agreed with expanding the corridor provided police were able to catch the criminals when they shift to historic West Las Vegas in his ward. Jackson Street in that area is trying to combat drug and prostitution problems as part of community-driven redevelopment plans.

"Don't move them out to an area where I already have a major problem," Weekly said.

Peck said his biggest concern about expanding the corridor is that the city continues to broaden the scope of the geographic area and type of crime covered.

"Such ordinances need to be limited in scope to pass constitutional muster," Peck said.

Clark County and North Las Vegas also have order-out zones, funneling street criminals away from certain areas and into others.