NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV — Auto theft is a stubborn and costly issue — especially for those of you who live in North Las Vegas, where the rate has been significantly above the national average, according to city documents.
I'm looking into how North Las Vegas Police are turning to technology in the fight against auto theft and violent crime at a time when staffing can be a struggle.
NLVPD was recently awarded an Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant from the Nevada Department of Public Safety.
It's for just under $180,000 and will fund eight new license plate reader (LPR) systems. The city already has a few LPRs on patrol cars and others fixed on poles, like at the entrance of Craig Ranch Regional Park.
The eight additional LPRs they're getting will be strategically deployed, focused on high-traffic areas and high-incidence crimes.
I looked through the city's grant application and found that between 2019 and 2023, North Las Vegas recorded more than 19,000 violent crimes and 26,200 property crimes — namely, robbery and auto theft.
While those numbers are dropping, the city still remains above twice the national average for violent crime and auto theft, according to the city's grant application.
NLVPD Traffic Officer Darren Rigsby said staffing can be a big challenge in apprehending these offenders.
"It's extremely difficult, because also, nationwide, we're seeing an unprecedented time where people are not wanting to be law enforcement officers as much. So we have a shortage for law enforcement officers and with that, you're not getting as much officers on the roadway, which then is leading to less proactive enforcement," Rigsby said.
He said that's where technology can help. He said LPRs are efficient and can help fill that gap. They can rapidly scan nearby license plates and compare them against databases for stolen vehicles, wanted suspects, and missing persons. This allows patrol officers to focus on the road and on driving, while the technology is scanning the plates of cars around them. It'll notify officers if there's a hit in the system.
"It'll give them an alert on their computer system or tone, to let them know, 'hey this vehicle, you just drove past it. Let's look for this vehicle, let's turn around, let's try to get the property back for the person that lost that property, find the missing child, find the missing adult, or possibly, take a dangerous off the roadway to make our community safe,'" Rigsby said.
These new LPRs they're getting may be fixed on patrol cars or on light poles. The goal, Rigsby said, is to get them out in high-traffic areas of the city.
"Craig Road gets a lot of vehicles that are traveling on a day-to-day basis. If I steal a car and I'm driving through our city, chances are I'm not using side roads or these backstreets, I'm just on a joyride and I'm just using the same normal major roads like I would on any other day," Rigsby said.
He said LPRs are something that can directly affect crime rates in the city by narrowing the scope of criminal investigations.
"What we're trying to do is make that haystack smaller, and I think technology is just going to help with that," he said.
I asked a couple of locals what they think of more LPRs coming to their area.
"We work hard to keep and have what we have, and for someone with cruel meanings to come and take it, I think that's really wrong," said Tonya Dawson. "And I think it's a great thing that the police is doing here in North Las Vegas to cut some of the crime down."
"Cameras everywhere now, and you can't go nowhere without being seen on the camera. The more cameras, the safer we are," Lloyd Scott said.
But the ACLU of Nevada sees it differently.
“North Las Vegas using ALPRs is a step in the wrong direction. Not long ago, the ACLU found that an ALPR company was engaged in a massive data-sharing agreement with ICE in which more than 9,000 ICE agents had access to an automated license plate reader database with billions of data points provided as part of a largely secretive $6.1 million contract between that company and ICE," said ACLU of Nevada executive director Athar Haseebullah. "No Nevada government should be trusted and empowered with data related to your freedom of movement. Violations of your civil liberties and privacy tend to happen most often under the guise of government protectionism. Trusting the government to operate transparently by 'taking their word for it' is lunacy."
In response to those privacy concerns, Officer Rigsby said they must provide a legal reason as to why they're investigating a certain tag. He also emphasizes, these readers scan plates, not people, and the data is purged periodically.
The grant funding for these new LPRs is set to expire after five years, after which the City of North Las Vegas plans to absorb the cost of the system into the city's general fund, according to city documents.