Las Vegas area shows big drop in crime stats

Monday, Oct. 16, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Serious crime fell in Las Vegas last year following the national trend, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report.

The report, released Sunday, showed that, nationally, serious crimes reported to the FBI by police in 1999 went down for an eighth straight year. The 7 percent drop extended the longest-running crime decline on record and pushed the murder rate to a 33-year low, FBI officials said.

Those results were mirrored in the FBI's Las Vegas district, which includes Clark and Nye counties and Mohave County, Ariz., where reported instances of violent and property crimes fell from 53,115 in 1998 to 47,828 in 1999.

"The report is another validation that the programs and strategies that we've put in place have had an effect," Metro Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Darcy said.

Murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and car thefts were all down in the Las Vegas district, according to the report, which Darcy says is used by Metro as a tool to evaluate performance.

Locally there were 109 murders in 1999 down from 116 in 1998, equaling 9.8 murders for every 100,000 residents. Violent crimes fell from 7,051 to 6,133. Robberies dropped from 3,292 to 3,121, and property crimes fell from 46,064 to 41,695.

The only serious crime category that Las Vegas lost ground in was forcible rapes, up from 501 in 1998 to 532 last year. Nationally the number of forcible rapes was down 4.3 percent compared with 1998, but several Western states showed growth in the category.

Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii all showed higher numbers of reported forcible rapes, according to the report.

Nationally, the violent crime rate sank to a 21-year low -- 525 murders, rapes, robberies and assaults for every 100,000 residents. The last time the figure was lower -- 498 in 1978 -- came well before an epidemic of crack cocaine sent violent crime soaring in the mid-1980s.

The murder rate was the lowest since 1966; 5.7 per 100,000 in 1999, compared with 5.6 in 1966.

Nationwide the rate and the number of all seven major violent and property crimes declined, despite an increase in the U.S. population, the FBI reported.

The national total for the seven serious crimes reported to 17,000 police agencies around the nation was 11,635,149 in 1999, down 20 percent since 1990. The number of reported crimes was down 10 percent in the West, 7 percent in the Northeast and Midwest and 5 percent in the South. The totals were down 7 percent in cities and rural areas and 8 percent in suburbs.

Among violent crimes, the population-adjusted rate for murder fell 8.5 percent; for robbery, 8.4 percent; for aggravated assault, 6.2 percent; and for rape, 4.3 percent.

Among property crimes, the rate for burglary fell 10 percent; for auto theft, 7.7 percent, and for larceny-theft, 5.7 percent.

The overall decline extended a trend begun in 1992 that is now almost three times longer than the second-longest decline, the three years from 1982 through 1984. FBI records go back through 1960.

"American families are safer today than they have been in a generation. ... But we cannot rest," Attorney General Janet Reno said. She advocated more work to ensure that the 500,000 Americans to be released from prison this year end up in jobs rather than back behind bars.

President Clinton attributed crime declines to legislation generated by the White House giving local communities "better tools ... including 100,000 more police for our streets, stronger gun laws and smart prevention."

Academic experts credited both parties' favorite anti-crime remedies but also factors beyond control of politicians, such as the aging of baby boomers past crime-prone years. They also cited the decline of crack cocaine and the violent gangs that sold it, an increase in community-based prevention programs, police targeting of illegal weapons and a better economy.