Columnist Jeff German: Taking a small bite out of crime

Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Six months after a string of burglaries first hit the Chinese community in southwest Las Vegas, Metro Police still are far away from solving them.

But it's not because of a lack of effort.

Cultural and language barriers have hindered the ability of police to develop leads in the investigation, first disclosed in this space in October.

In all 19 burglaries now have been reported since June, and police suspect the thefts have been committed by a Chinese organized crime group headquartered in New York. The group is believed to be looking for passports, which sell for $5,000 to $35,000 on the black market, to feed an international smuggling operation.

For Metro Sgt. Mike Maines, who's spearheading the investigation, the biggest obstacle has been convincing Chinese community members, who traditionally shy away from cooperating with police, that officers are their friends, not their enemies. On Wednesday Maines, who runs the six-member Problem Solving Unit at the Southwest Area Command Center, took a small step toward removing that obstacle when he appealed directly to local Chinese residents for help.

During a 90-minute meeting at the bustling Chinatown plaza on Spring Mountain Road, just down the street from the Southwest Area Command Center, Maines and Crime Prevention Specialist William Tullock found an unusually inquisitive audience.

About two dozen Chinese residents and business leaders peppered the duo with questions about the probe.

It wasn't a huge turnout, but it was encouraging to the 35-year-old Maines, a soft-spoken 12-year department veteran, and Tullock, an energetic retired Detroit cop, who are counting on the Chinese community to be their eyes and ears on the street as the search for suspects continues.

"We're just a small part of the equation," Tullock told the audience in a booming and confident voice. "You're the real key."

Tullock couldn't have been more candid. Police, you see, are desperate for fresh leads in the case.

Maines said he's hoping residents will help officers find a 1998 silver Mitsubishi Galant, with the New York license plate, BKE-9190, that was spotted outside the home of the last burglary. The car matched the description of a silver four-door sedan at an earlier crime scene.

Law enforcement agencies in New York and the West have been alerted to the vehicle and the nature of the burglary investigation, and Maines continues to stay in touch with local federal agencies, such as the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, with the hope of gleaning any useful information.

Maines told those at the Chinatown meeting that police know how the New York crime group operates. It looks up Chinese residents in the phone book, cases their neighborhoods, and when it settles on a target, it calls the home with a cell phone to make sure no one is present.

Residents were given tips to make it more difficult for the burglars to gain access to their homes -- simple things, such as keeping lights on when they leave at night and making sure doors leading to the garage are locked. The residents genuinely seemed to appreciate the advice.

A thin, elderly man in the back of the room, hunched over and sporting a long gray beard, politely thanked Maines and Tullock as they left the meeting feeling upbeat about the small step forward they had just taken.

"We'll meet with anyone, any day and anywhere," Tullock said.

Maines predicted the burglary case ultimately will be cracked, if not in Las Vegas, then in another city where the crime group may be operating.

But Las Vegas is where the case deserves to be solved, and the Chinese community is starting to see the value of helping police.

"We're learning what we can do to make us less of a target," said local businessman Frank Tsou, a mover and shaker within the Asian Chamber of Commerce. "We all want to do our share."