Las Vegas’ funding of Metro increases

Judy Odierna

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

Las Vegas will pay at least $630,000 more for police protection beginning July 1.

The City Council unanimously approved Metro Police's funding appropration plan Wednesday, which calls for the city to pick up that additional cost. The increase is tied to the way the city and the county divide the costs for the department, which polices Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County.

The division of costs is determined by a formula that takes into account population and calls for service and felony crimes and the proportional effect on Metro's costs.

The city contributes about $90 million annually to the Metro budget, while Clark County pays more than $120 million. Clark County's overall percentage share of the budget will decrease slightly because of the funding formula. The county will continue to cover the entire cost of Metro's Rural Resident Officer Program, however.

Metro's budget request, which will be presented to the Metro Fiscal Affairs Board on Monday, notes that 57.8 percent of the felony crimes handled by Metro in the most recent year were within the city limits compared with 50.7 percent in the prior year.

The city's share of the population served by the department has grown to 43.8 percent, compared with 43.6 percent in the prior year, and calls for service at locations within the city has grown to 41.8 percent compared with 41.4 percent for the prior year.

The county saw decreases in each category. The population percentage for the county dipped slightly, from 56.4 percent last year to 56.2 in the most recent year. Calls for police service in the county decreased from 58.6 percent to 58.2 percent, and felony crimes decreased from 49.3 percent to 42.1 percent.