Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.
Metro Police handled slightly more homicides in 2003 than the year before, but once the population growth is taken into account last year's homicide rate will be lower than 2002's, Lt. Tom Monahan said.
Metro's homicide detectives investigated 147 killings in 2003 compared with 145 the year before.
An analysis of the department's homicides, which Monahan will compile and release within the next few months, "will show a decrease in the per capita rate," he said.
"I'm pretty sure more than two people moved to Clark County in 2003," he said. "Statistically I don't think an increase of two (homicides) is very significant."
According to state demographers, about 60,000 people move to Clark County every year.
Monahan noted that the only year Metro saw a marked drop in homicides was in 2000. Ninety-five occurred that year, sandwiched between 113 in 1999 and 138 in 2001.
"Everyone pretty much admitted it was an anomaly," he said. After that year, the department saw a climb in raw numbers, but given the population boom, the increases have not been surprising, authorities said.
The numbers also do not include people killed by police officers. Eight people were killed by Metro officers in 2003 and seven in 2002.
In 2003, North Las Vegas had one homicide less than the year before -- 21 occurred compared to 22 in 2002, Officer Justin Roberts, spokesman for the department, said. In 2001, there were 21 homicides in North Las Vegas. There had been 12 in that city in 2000.
Henderson Police handled 10 homicides -- four more than in 2002. Four of the 10 were related to domestic violence, police said.
"Any increase we deem to be too much because that means another person has died by a violent means," spokesman Keith Paul said.
"We take all domestic violence cases seriously," he said, adding that the department has a domestic violence detective who tries to prevent those cases from turning into homicide investigations.
The number of robberies handled by Metro, meanwhile, showed a marked decline in 2003.
The department investigated 60 fewer robberies in 2003 than the year before, an improvement officials say can be attributed to some pro-active programs aimed at nabbing would-be street muggers and crooks who prey on holiday shoppers.
Metro Police rolled out a program in October 2002 that put robbery detectives dressed as vulnerable victims -- the homeless and elderly, for example -- on downtown streets.
That program continued into 2003 and helped push down the number of robberies by 9 percent, Lt. Ted Snodgrass, head of the robbery section, said. In 2003, Metro investigated 4,007 robberies, compared with 4,067 in 2002.
Muggings and retail business hold-ups were the most common robberies; the most infrequent were casino cage robberies and cab driver robberies, according to Metro records.
The holiday shopping season proved safer for shoppers and retailers in 2003 than the year before.
Metro handled 47 fewer robberies between Nov. 20 and Dec. 26 than in the same period of 2002, meeting its goal of reducing holiday season robberies by 10 percent.
Snodgrass attributed the drop to the "2003 Holiday Initiative," a pilot program that saturated shopping areas with uniformed and plainclothes officers.
"I think these types of pro-active techniques are keeping the numbers down," Snodgrass said.
Between Nov. 20 and Dec. 26, Metro investigated 409 robberies. During the same period of 2002, the number was 456.
"At the beginning of this, our goal was to be down by 10 percent," Snodgrass said. "We were down by 10.3 percent. That's successful."
Metro made more than 40 felony arrests at about a dozen shopping locations around Las Vegas.
Petty larceny -- theft of property worth less than $250 -- was down 48 percent; grand larceny -- theft of property worth more than $250 -- was down 8 percent, and car thefts were down 25 percent.
Officers also kept watch during the holiday initiative for any large trucks that might have been a terrorist threat, Snodgrass said, but they found nothing suspicious.
Metro handled 126 fatal crashes in 2003, up just two from the year before. Thirty-four of those were alcohol-related. In 2002, 38 were alcohol related.
The Nevada Highway Patrol logged 71 fatal crashes, and 27 were alcohol-related. No fatal crashes occurred on the county's highways on New Year's Eve, Trooper Angie Wolff said.
Metro handled one fatal crash on the afternoon of Dec. 31, but it was not alcohol-related. The crash occurred on Charleston Boulevard near Nellis Boulevard and was caused when a driver made an unsafe turn, police said.
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