Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Last year in Nevada, vehicles were stolen at a rate of one every 25 minutes and 13 seconds and homicides occurred at a rate of one every 44 hours. The greatest number of car thefts took place from October through December, while September was the worst month for homicides, with 27 logged during that month.
Those were among the statistics in the state Department of Public Safety's crime report for 2003. The annual report was issued last week. It breaks down the 110,520 crimes reported in the state last year, an 8.9 percent increase over the previous year's total.
And while the number of crimes increased, law enforcement solved a lower percentage of them -- 18.4 percent last year, which was a decrease of 7.5 percent from 2002.
The statewide report also said $258.6 million worth of property was stolen and law enforcement officers recovered only $66.5 million of it, or 25.7 percent. Metro Police had an even lower property recovery rate. In Metro's jurisdiction -- unincorporated Clark County and Las Vegas -- $172 million in property was reported stolen last year, of which only $27.1 million, or 15.8 percent, was recovered.
Based on an estimated population of 2.3 million people, the crime rate was 48.1 criminal offenses for every 1,000 Nevadans.
The statewide statistics are gathered from local police agencies. David Hosmer, chief of the Nevada Highway Patrol, and NHP Maj. Bob Wideman, said it was impossible for them to talk about statewide trends based on the report because each locale has different rates and problems.
What may be a rising crime rate in Reno doesn't apply to Las Vegas, they said. "The trends depend on local areas," said Hosmer.
For instance, there were 101 hate crimes in Nevada in 2003 and all but 15 were reported by Metro Police.
The statistics compiled by the state Records and Identification Bureau showed Nevada has a lower ratio of law enforcement officers compared with the national average. There were 4,688 full-time sworn law enforcement officers or 2.04 officers per 1,000 population in Nevada last year. Nationally, the average ratio was 2.3 officers per 1,000 people in 2002.
There were 20,849 reports of car theft to law enforcement agencies last year, an increase of 19.2 percent over the 17,485 cars stolen in 2002. Law enforcement cleared 14.5 percent of all the motor vehicle thefts.
There were 152,962 people arrested in Nevada last year, down 1 percent from the 153,065 arrested last year.
There were no figures available to compare Nevada with national and western states in 2003 on car theft. But in prior years, Nevada has on a per-capita basis had more auto thefts than the averages nationally and in the west.
Homicides rose 7.1 percent for a total of 197 in 2003 with law enforcement clearing 50.3 percent of the cases. Sixteen percent of the killings were "drug related" and 10 percent were the result of a "domestic conflict," according to the annual report.
A handgun was used in 55.1 percent of the killings and 11.9 percent were committed with a knife or cutting device.
Of those killed, 59 were females. The report said 173 of the killers were male and 20 were women.
Violent crimes that include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault decreased by 0.4 percent in 2003 with 13,811 offenses.
There were 871 rapes reported to law enforcement, down from the 930 in 2002. Robberies rose 1.8 percent to 5,215 in 2003. And aggravated assaults fell 1.3 percent to 7,528 in 2003.
Property crimes consisting of burglary, larceny, car theft and arson rose 14.4 percent in 2003 to 12,180 offenses. The number of reported burglaries rose 15.9 percent; larceny was up 12.4 percent and arson decreased 9 percent.
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