LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY - More than 19,000 vehicles were stolen last year in Clark County, prompting Metro to push for a bill to toughen the laws on car theft.

Under the proposal, judges would be prohibited from granting probation or suspending a sentence the second time that a person is convicted of grand theft auto.

The current law provides a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for a second car theft conviction, depending on the vehicle's value. But probation is allowed.

The bill to prevent repeat car thieves from avoiding prison has drawn opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and the public defender's office in Clark County.

Joseph Turco of the ACLU told the Senate Judiciary Committee that creating tougher sentences for a nonviolent crime would worsen prison crowding. "We can go down this road and become the most incarcerated state in the nation," he said.

Jason Frierson, of the Clark County public defender's office, said the statistics cited by Flynn may be "skewed" because Clark County prosecutes more auto theft cases than other jurisdictions.

The committee withheld a vote on the bill after its chairman, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, asked for statistics on how the high volume of car thefts - Nevada ranks third highest in the nation - affects motorists' auto insurance. Amodei also wants to know whether other states have similar laws preventing probation on a second car theft conviction.

Tightening the law isn't the only thing Metro is doing to combat car theft.

"We have a 'bait' program where we put vehicles out that are specially equipped for police to work with," Flynn said. "Once somebody steals it we are able to track it. And we have a video of the crime."

Police also use a "window etching" program under which a chemical process marks a vehicle's VIN number on every window, making it difficult for stolen cars to be sold.

And Metro's "Watch a Car" program allows people to receive a sticker for their vehicle. If police see a car with one of the stickers on the road between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., they pull it over to ensure that it is being driven by the owner.

A veteran correctional officer has become the second person disciplined for permitting a prison escape of an inmate who then went on a crime spree in Clark County.

A state hearing officer has upheld the 20-day suspension of Officer Wayne Mulder, a tower guard who did not see inmate Jody Thompson hiding in the back of a prison truck at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City in 2005.

Thompson was serving time for a Nye County robbery, but now faces 20 counts of robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon for the crimes he committed in Southern Nevada while loose.

A dental assistant at the prison was fired for furnishing Thompson a cell phone that helped in his escape.

After his capture, Thompson was transferred to the maximum security prison in Ely.

Thompson escaped by hiding in a prison truck that was taking furniture from the prison industries program to the prison in Lovelock. Later, while the truck was stopped in Fallon, he used the cell phone to call friends who drove him to Las Vegas.

State Hearing Officer Bill Kockenmeister, in upholding the suspension, said Mulder was required to make sure that all vehicles were thoroughly searched before leaving the prison industries area.