LV metro area listed among most dangerous

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 10:54 a.m.

The Las Vegas metropolitan area ranks as the 12th most dangerous in the country, according to a study released today.

The study, released by Morgan Quitno Press, a Kansas research and publishing firm, is based on 2002 FBI statistics for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and car theft. The study looks at each metropolitan area's rates and then ranks the area based on how it stacks up against the national rates.

Crime in the Las Vegas metropolitan area -- which, according to the Census Bureau, includes Clark and Nye counties and Mohave County, Ariz. -- ranked higher than the national average for all of the crimes measured.

The study also measured cities by population. Henderson ranked as the 61st safest of 199 cities in the 100,000 to 499,000 category. North Las Vegas ranked 166 in the same category. Henderson's population was 175,381 in the 2000 Census; North Las Vegas' was 115,488.

Las Vegas was considered in the category of cities above 500,000, since the study used data from Metro Police, whose jurisdiction goes beyond the city's geographical boundaries. The city's 2000 population was 478,434.

Las Vegas ranked 14th safest of 31 cities in the category of large cities.

But law enforcement authorities and those who study crime questioned the reliability of the numbers the study's rankings are based on.

"I find these things to be incredibly useless -- to rank cites and metropolitan areas according to dangerousness based on crime rates," said Terance Miethe, professor in the criminal justice department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Miethe, who wrote "The Mismeasure of Crime," a book on crime statistics, said the problem with studies like the Morgan Quitno report -- titled "America's Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities" -- is the lack of uniformity in numbers from city to city and across jurisdictions.

An example, he said, is the crime of rape. In Philadelphia, it falls under reports of criminal trespass, he said.

Additionally, "so much crime is underreported" -- including rapes, car thefts and aggravated assaults.

Clark County Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said another factor to consider in evaluating the ranking is the officer-to-citizen ratio.

The Las Vegas Valley, he said, has about 1.7 officers for every 1,000 residents. The national average is closer to 2.5, Gillespie said. New York City -- which was the sixth safest large city in the nation -- has 4.5 officers for every 1,000 residents, he said.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger raised the same issue.

"Whatever these statistics are worth, they certainly underscore Sheriff Bill Young's appeal for more officers," Roger said.

Gillespie and also Roger agreed on another issue they said was worth considering -- the study used population figures that don't include the tens of millions of tourists who visit the valley every year.

"Anytime we deal with information like this, I become skeptical ... because it doesn't take into account the tourist population," Gillespie said.

"When you take into account stolen vehicles, for example, and think of the number of tourists who drive cars ... it does affect the numbers."

According to study author Scott Morgan, car theft figures in the Las Vegas metropolitan area had the highest jump from 2001 to 2002, going from 817 residents per 100,000 who were victims of that crime to 947 per 100,000. The national average for car theft in 2002 was 432 per 100,000.

Last year's study ranked the Las Vegas metropolitan area as the 23rd most dangerous nationwide, Morgan said.

Gillespie said Metro will be taking a hard look at this year's ranking.

"Anytime a survey identifies Las Vegas as ... dangerous ... it is of great concern to the department. We will keep developing strategies to make Las Vegas safer for people that want to come here to live or visit," he said.

Pine Bluff, Ark., was listed as the most dangerous city, while Bangor, Maine, was called the safest. Las Vegas was one spot above Los Angeles in the rankings.