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Property crime down across Las Vegas

LVMPD captain looks at three factors
Posted at 11:19 PM, Oct 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-12 02:51:35-04
While violent crime has been a big problem so far in 2016, the news isn’t all bad. Property crimes across Las Vegas are actually down compared to this time last year.
 
Property crime has dropped 7 percent across Las Vegas, overall, from this time last year to date. If we break it down by regions, the northeast area is down 7 percent, the south central area is down 8 percent, the northwest area is down 9 percent, Enterprise is down 11 percent, Bolden is down 15 percent, and Spring Valley is down 17 percent.
 
Three areas that went up a little in property crime are Convention Center, downtown and the southeast area.
 
Capt. Richard Fletcher who heads up the Northwest Area Command says there’s three main reasons.
 
The first reason is because of more neighborhood watch groups.
 
“Because we know, it’s a proven fact the areas that have neighborhood watches have less crime.”
 
The second reason is because of the decentralization of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
 
“I have more control and more ability to say I need you here and not here and I think we are seeing a positive result,” Fletcher said. “We took them (the specialized detectives) out and put them into the area commands and we try to use their specialty to address certain crimes.”
 
The third reason is because they are gaining more officers. Fletcher says they just hired 90.
 
“We’re seeing those numbers come back up across the department to have more cops on the street and what that means for you is a better service and really a better department.”
 
Fletcher says the drop in property crime is impressive, but they want to keep tackling the violent crime like robberies, assaults and homicides. Violent crime is up 15 percent compared to this time last year.