Citizens, police teaming up to clean house

Wednesday, July 6, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

Police calls

Statistics provided by Metro Police show a decrease in calls officers responded to from the last six months of 2004 to the first six months of 2005 at three major apartment complexes just east of downtown Las Vegas:

Disturbances, 60, 38; batteries, 10, 6; shootings, 1, 0; stabbings, 4, 1; domestic, 31, 31.

Domestic, 63; 31; batteries, 19, 7.

Stabbings, 2, 0; shootings, 4, 0.

Before Bett Hemry became manager of the Sedona Hills Apartments in the 2800 block of East Charleston Boulevard, seven murders occurred there in 2003, including a triple killing in one unit.

The area east of downtown Las Vegas was known as an open air market for drugs and prostitution.

So far this year there have been no homicides in that complex and the area around it and almost no other crimes once common to downtown Las Vegas.

Occupancy has grown to 95 percent at her complex, Hemry said, crediting cooperation between apartment managers and Metro Police.

"It was a slow process, but in the last year it's become a great place," Hemry said. "It's a whole different feeling to be there."

Metro officers went undercover, worked off-duty hours surveying activities and set up cameras to videotape activities.

Metro Officer Nikki Mancillas said apartment managers along East Charleston, Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard had made "phenomenal progress" in ridding complexes of drug dealers and prostitutes.

Sgt. Eric Fricker said the overall 37 percent drop in crimes around downtown is "almost unheard of."

Instead of handling 1,000 calls from the area, police have responded to 370 fewer incidents in the first six months of this year.

Hemry credited Fricker and more than a dozen other officers for listening to the concerns of residents and taking complaints from managers seriously.

Hemry, Cindy Lowery at Somerset Commons in the 2700 block of Fremont and Sherry Pastianos at the Charleston Woods Apartments in the 2800 block of East Charleston received praise and plaques during a Tuesday night meeting between some 40 residents and business owners with police officers.

Detective Chris Slaughter said Metro is making a concerted effort to reach out to the community for help in catching criminals who often arrive on a bus and take a room downtown.

"Police presence alone doesn't help anybody," he said.

With the help of Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese, Metro will move its traffic unit into the substation at the corner of Atlantic and St. Louis avenues.

"The city is spending in excess of $1 million to re-establish a police presence there," Reese said.

A downtown residents council has started to tell police what is going on day by day, council vice chairman Dewain Steadman said.

Steadman, Rocco and Dona Prock were recognized by Metro for their efforts in bringing citizens to the table.

For 20-year Las Vegas resident Earl White, who was named Metro's Downtown Command Citizen of the Year, the communication and cooperation between police and ordinary people have changed noticeably in 10 years.

"We're getting a different type of people downtown," White said.

Fricker is an "old fashioned community police officer," one who knows everyone and everything in the neighborhoods.

"That's the kind of police we need," White said.

White has built affordable housing downtown, fed the hungry and found jobs for the needy.

"You're a mentor to me," Reese told White, recalling how the community activist counseled him as a rookie councilman a decade ago.

"I think the biggest thing we've done is tear down the barriers between citizens and police officers," White said.

Police know they have to keep a constant watch out for criminals to capture.

Last week an interagency task force recovered three pounds of cocaine and $50,000 in cash near St. Louis Avenue and Boulder Highway.