Rate of violent crime drops in Las Vegas

By Cara McCoy

Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 4:37 p.m.

Violent crime is down nationwide for the second year in a row. Preliminary numbers compiled by the FBI indicate it's also seeing a dip in the Las Vegas Valley.

Reporting law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada -- Metro Police, the Henderson Police Department and North Las Vegas Police -- all saw a drop in violent crime last year, according to the FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report. Crimes categorized as violent by the FBI include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Violent crimes reported to Metro Police dropped 2.32 percent from 2007 to 2008, in North Las Vegas they dropped 8.84 percent and in Henderson they dropped 10.49 percent. The preliminary report was released earlier this week.

The report, which analyzes data submitted by law enforcement agencies across the country, shows violent crime in 2008 was down 2.5 percent nationwide and 3.4 percent in the western region of the country, which includes Nevada, Arizona, California and other western states.

The area in the jurisdiction of Metro Police, the largest of the area's three agencies, had the highest per-capita violent crime rate. Henderson had the lowest.

Henderson Police spokesman Todd Rasmussen attributed the drop to the "More Cops" sales tax increase, which put more officers on the street. North Las Vegas Police spokeswoman Chrissie Coon said that while more officers and other initiatives likely have lowered the crime rate, one year's worth of data is too little to draw any conclusions.

"A year's timeframe is not a significant enough amount of time for us to come out and say (crime) has dropped," she said.

Although the total number of violent crimes was down in the Las Vegas area, the number of forcible rapes in each jurisdiction slightly increased. Henderson had the most dramatic jump – 90 in 2008 compared to 66 the previous year.

Rasmussen said rapes in Henderson are down 13 percent from five years ago, attributing the spike in recent data to increased reporting by victims rather than an increase in the number of rapes. He said better access to victims' advocates and improved investigative methods have encouraged more victims to come forward to report the crime.

He said 92 percent of rapes are committed by acquaintances, not strangers.

The number of murders stayed steady year-over-year in Metro's jurisdiction, with 119 reported in 2007 and 120 reported in 2008. Henderson saw five murders last year, compared to nine the year before. North Las Vegas saw a considerable drop, with 11 murders reported last year compared to 28 the year before.

"Eleven is an anomaly," Coon said, saying there typically aren't large swings in annual homicide numbers. "Over several years, (the number reported) is usually flat."

The number of motor vehicle thefts also tumbled, with a year-over-year drop in Henderson of 35.69 percent, a 30.67 percent fall in Metro Police jurisdiction and a 27.49 percent drop in North Las Vegas.

Officials attributed the drop to VIPER, a multi-agency task force that seeks to reduce auto thefts in the area. It includes Metro Police, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, North Las Vegas Police, Henderson Police and the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Las Vegas moved from No. 1 in auto thefts in 2006 to No. 7 in 2008, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which ranks cities based on auto thefts per 100,000 residents.

The Las Vegas area has seen a steady decline in auto thefts over the past three years: 1,265.9 thefts per 100,000 residents in 2006, 1,041.28 in 2007 and 732.25 in 2008, according to the insurance survey.

Forbes magazine in April ranked the Las Vegas area as No. 4 on its list of the country's 15 most dangerous cities. The magazine said there are 887 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

Reno saw a slight uptick in violent crime, with 1,532 crimes reported last year and 1,513 reported the year before. That's about a 1.25 percent change.

Nationwide, in 2008, the number of murders fell by 4.4 percent, rapes by 2.2 percent, aggravated assaults by 3.2 percent and robberies by 1.1 percent, according to the FBI data.