Lombardo praises specialty Metro unit’s inroads against crime

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Thursday, July 7, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Dozens of piled-up firearms covered almost every inch of a rectangular table in front of Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo as he touted a concentrated effort to curb violent crime that has plagued the Las Vegas Valley this year.

The 85 weapons — the majority being handguns and a few rifles that were in possession by people not allowed to have them — were impounded the past 10 weeks as Metro Police has increased its policing efforts through its Neighborhood Enforcement Team.

“We are a gun nation,” Lombardo said. “We have (access to) 300 million firearms in the United States and it’s something we have to deal with in law enforcement.”

In the same 10-week period, the unit — comprising 20 officers, four detectives, two sergeants and a lieutenant — yielded 419 felony and gross misdemeanor arrests, 177 misdemeanor arrests, 23 search warrants served, and 19 fugitive arrests, Lombardo said Wednesday.

Although violent crime is still up “across the board” compared to last year, NET has had a direct effect on the numbers “leveling out,” he said, using homicide numbers as an example.

In April, homicides investigated for the year were more than double (135 percent) compared to the same period in 2015. The 92 homicides Metro had investigated as of Wednesday is a 62 percent rise, he said.

“It shows that we’re going in the right direction,” Lombardo said. Property crime is down 6 percent compared to 2015, he said.

Local legislation

A second and smaller NET, temporarily funded by overtime pay through a $440,000 infusion from Las Vegas government last month, netted six firearms the first day they were out, Lombardo said.

Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission have been in a verbal feud over funding, and a $1 million proposed infusion from the county to make the second team permanent is currently on hold.

“I fully anticipate that we will be able to — with the city and the county — receive additional funding for our police officers in the future,” Lombardo said, adding that logistics need to be figured out.

California connection

Lombardo again spoke about the increased interactions Metro officers have recently had with Californians, some with a history in that state’s penal system.

In conjunction with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Metro recently identified over 23 California fugitives living in Las Vegas. The majority of them, 19, have since been arrested and extradited, Lombardo said.

The two departments promised to keep working together, he said.

Seven of the arrested fugitives have a local criminal history and two are linked to two separate homicides in Las Vegas, he said. “It begs to give validity to my theory associated with California.”

That theory is that locally, the increased interactions with California ex-cons can be traced to U.S. Supreme Court-mandated legislation, such as Assembly Bill 109, which transferred some felons serving time for nonviolent and nonsexual crimes from state to county jails, also reducing parole supervision and time served for violating parole, and Proposition 47, which focused on allowing some nonviolent felony sentences to be reduced to misdemeanors.

On Wednesday, it wasn’t immediately clear if any of the 19 fugitives arrested were linked to that legislation, Lombardo said.

Up-to-date data shows that 50 percent of violent crime in Las Vegas is associated with gangs, Lombardo said. Californians (victims, suspects or both) are associated with 26 percent of those crimes, he added.

Gun legislation

Lombardo has not taken a public stance on Question 1, a November ballot initiative that would require anyone trying to transfer or sell a gun to go through a licensed dealer, who would in turn run a background check on the buyer.

He said he’s a proponent of gun legislation, but “I’m also a proponent of the Second Amendment.”

“Gun ownership bears responsibility and any ability to remove a firearm or prevent an individual who’s prohibited (from owning one) I would support.”

Lombardo noted that “a lot of firearms are exchanging hands associated with private sales and we have to determine a way to mandate background checks with those transactions.”

In Nevada and since 1994, the sale of over 2 million firearms has been prohibited because of background checks, he said.

In the future there will be a more clear indication on other factors contributing to violent crime, Lombardo said.