Metro, NHP already making preparations for next New Year's Eve madness

Only a handful of the estimated 350,000 to 400,000 people on the Strip on New Year's Eve were responsible for three stabbings, an overturned vehicle, numerous fights and destruction of property, including torn-down traffic signals.

Still when next year rolls around, Metro Police and the Nevada Highway Patrol could be looking back fondly on New Year's Eve 1998.

"We could approach three-quarters of a million people out there next year," Metro Officer Steve Meriwether said.

"We want to use what worked from this year and apply it to next year."

With expectations of a crowd about double of this year's, the Highway Patrol is planning to increase its patrols from 80 to at least 120 next New Year's Eve.

Metro also plans to increase its patrols, but it does not know yet by how much.

Representatives from Metro, the Highway Patrol, the Clark County and Las Vegas fire departments, Clark County Public Works and other public safety agencies will meet Tuesday to organize a planning committee for the millennium celebration.

"For the year 2000, all the major metro hubs are starting to plan for New Year's," Highway Patrol Trooper Scott Flabi said.

"In New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, they have already started planning, and with the Strip these planning sessions are a must for Las Vegas."

The meetings will analyze what happened at this year's celebration to help officials come up with comprehensive plan for next year's celebration.

Metro had 546 uniformed officers on the Strip and the Highway Patrol had 12 roving units in addition to the 80 troopers.

To increase those numbers, Flabi said, "What we'll probably end up doing is pulling troopers from other parts of the state."

One of the biggest problems that the two agencies faced this year was getting through the crowd to where problems were happening, Flabi said.

To address that, there will be more reliance next year on Metro's mounted patrol, Meriwether said.

"People move out of the way for a 1,500-pound animal," Meriwether said.

"The mounted patrol was a tremendous help in parting the crowd. The crowd will not move out of the way for just about anything, but the mounted patrol parts them like the sea."

This year, the size of the crowd forced the Highway Patrol to close the Strip from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road.

"Originally we were just going to shut it down from Convention Center Drive to Tropicana, but there were just too many people," Flabi said. "It's pretty much a given that we'll have to shut it down from Sahara to Russell to begin with next year."

Flabi said that he'd like to set a specific time next year that access to the Strip would be shut down.

"If we put a specific time out there, people would know that past that time it's done," Flabi said. "We'd work with the businesses and casinos on alternate routes for their people to get to and from work."

The Highway Patrol's primary responsibility on New Year's is traffic, while Metro handles the bulk of the crowd control.

The Highway Patrol reported 36 arrests near the Strip, including 23 on drunken-driving charges. Metro reported 93 arrests along the Strip.

Problems with vandalism, fighting and property destruction will be discussed in the committee, but will be that much harder to control if the numbers on the Strip double next year, Flabi said.

"You mix the crowd with a little alcohol, and you get a monkey-see monkey-do situation," Flabi said. "There are things that people probably wouldn't do on their own, like pulling down traffic signals near Flamingo and throwing bottles off the Forum Shops, but they see someone else doing it and join in."

"This would be such an easy and enjoyable event if people just behaved themselves," Meriwether said. "Instead you get obnoxious, sophomoric behavior from some people that causes problems for everyone."

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