Officers take it to streets to keep peace in Las Vegas

Jen Lawson

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 11 a.m.

A trailer attached to a pickup truck in a dirt lot at 15th and Fremont streets is an unlikely place to find a Metro Police substation.

But twice a month through the summer, officers from Metro's downtown area command will be in the trailer and in two buildings downtown taking crime reports, helping with neighborhood problems and trying to improve citizen-police relations in one of the city's most blighted areas.

"When the trailer comes in, the bad people go away and the good people come out," said Sgt. Eric Fricker, who got the project off the ground with funding from the federal Weed and Seed program.

Passers-by "usually come up and ask what's going on," said Officer Levi Hancock, who was manning the trailer recently.

In addition to the trailer, the other two minisubstations are located in a storefront at the corner of Eighth and Fremont streets and inside the Stupak Community Center at 300 W. Boston Ave. behind the Stratosphere.

They opened April 2 and operate from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first and third Friday of every month. Each is staffed with two officers from the department's community-oriented policing section.

The Weed and Seed project downtown began three years ago. The name of the program refers to its objectives: Weed an area of crime, then seed it with services, Fricker explained. The officers who staff the summer substations are being paid with a portion of the $105,000 Weed and Seed monies that Metro received this year.

Metro used Weed and Seed funds to purchase the trailer, but the spaces in the two other locations were donated to the department.

Arrests and criminal investigations aren't the highest priorities to the officers in the minisubstations, Fricker said. They will make arrests if necessary, but the their main function is to interact with the citizens in a positive way.

Since the substations opened, officers have made just three arrests, Fricker said.

"Weed and Seed isn't just about enforcement, it's about helping people," he said. "We're solving more problems, and crimes of opportunity are going down because we're out there."

On Friday, behind the trailer, a tent and a few tables and chairs were set up along with a sign reading, "Here today -- Free HIV testing."

The oral HIV testing was being conducted by members of the Clark County Outreach Team, a collaborative effort between the Clark County Health District, Aid for AIDS in Nevada and the Economic Opportunity Board.

The team, which hands out free condoms and information on HIV/AIDS on the streets, approached Metro and asked if they could set up a testing station as a way to reach out to more people.

"We're providing services that Metro can't," said Candice Nichols of Aid for AIDS of Nevada. The team had wondered if Metro's presence would deter people, but by the end of the day 20 people had been tested. Nichols said they were pleased with the turnout.

Pastor Stephen Smith of the Downtown Community Church at Ninth Street and Ogden Avenue was checking out the activity at 15th and Fremont on Friday afternoon and gave Metro's presence a hearty endorsement.

"The police are always looked at as putting people in paddy wagons," Smith said. "Instead of being 100 percent enforcement, they're doing things like helping a mother and her kid get housing."

While getting tested for HIV, a woman said her housing situation was tenuous and police directed her to Betty Harris, case manager for the Courtney Children's Foundation Family Resource Center at 121 N. 15th St. Harris found the woman an affordable apartment.

"There are more good people down here than bad people," Fricker said. "If people want to be helped, there is help for them."