Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.
While the nation as a whole saw a slight decrease, Las Vegas experienced a significant increase in major crime last year, the FBI reported Monday.
Metro Police logged 12.2 percent more major crimes in 2002 than in 2001, according to the preliminary FBI data. Nationally, however, major crime was down 0.2 percent, according to the same report.
Major crime includes violent crimes -- murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault -- as well as some property crimes -- burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. The only category in which Las Vegas saw a decrease in 2002 was arson.
Violent crimes in Las Vegas were up 19 percent in 2002 while property crimes were up 11.1 percent, according to the FBI report.
The large percentage increase in violent crime was due mainly to a 38.5 percent increase in aggravated assaults and an 18.5 percent increase in auto thefts.
Last year, Metro's jurisdiction -- Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County -- had 4,574 reported aggravated assaults -- everything from fights to non-fatal stabbings and shootings -- in 2002. In 2001 the tally had been 3,302 aggravated assaults.
Las Vegas' property crime increase was driven by an 18.5 percent spike in vehicle thefts -- 12,489 vehicles were reported stolen in 2002, compared with 10,544 in the prior year.
Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said one of the factors that might have contributed to the increase in crime is the growing population of the area -- Clark County's population increased 4.3 percent in 2002. There has also been a rise in the number of 15- to 25-year-olds in the valley, and that is the age group that commits the most crimes, officials said.
"We have seen an increase in our numbers. This causes us concern, and we are looking at long-term strategies" to address the problem, he said.
Sheriff Bill Young sought to put more officers on the street this fiscal year, which begins July 1, but the Las Vegas City Council and Clark County Commission only approved a 10 percent budget increase. This will allow Metro to maintain, and not improve, the current ratio of 1.7 officers for every 1,000 people, authorities said.
This ratio is significantly lower than the national average for major cities. Nationally, the ratio is 2.5 officers for every 1,000 people, officials said.
With fewer officers and a growing number of people calling Las Vegas home, Metro officials have been struggling with how to maximize law enforcement in Las Vegas and the unincorporated areas of Clark County that fall into Metro's jurisdiction.
Top-level officers have been meeting to address how to combat certain crimes such as aggravated assaults -- "street-level types of crimes," as Gillespie puts it.
"Uniform presence could lead to a reduction in crime, but we have to put in place strategies to address what happens when these uniformed officers leave," he said.
Although he said he didn't want to reveal their specific plans, he said he is "confident that when we implement these strategies, we will see a decrease."
Henderson fared better than Las Vegas in Monday's report from the FBI. Although the smaller city saw an increase in major crimes last year, it was just a 1.4 percent rise. Violent crimes were down 13.2 percent while property crimes increased by 2.8 percent.
"The bottom line is we feel really fortunate that violent crime is down," Officer Shane Lewis said, adding that extra patrols and bicycle officers could have had something to do with the decrease.
The property crime total in Henderson was pushed up largely by an 80 percent increase in arsons. The city had 56 arsons last year compared with 31 in 2001, the FBI noted.
The increase in arsons may be attributable to the Henderson Fire Department's formation of a fire investigations division in August 2002, Henderson fire investigator Don Spellman said. That unit helped identify more fires as arson, he said. The department made 40 arson arrests in 2001 and 41 in 2002, he said.
Major crime statistics for North Las Vegas were not immediately available today.
Nationally, last year's overall decrease was the resumption of the preceding decade's decline, but the numbers of murders and rapes increased in 2002, the FBI reported.
The FBI's report found a 0.2 percent decrease in the number of crimes reported to the police or other law enforcement agencies in 2002, as compared with 2001. That resumed a trend that began in 1991, broken only in 2001 when crime rose by 2.1 percent over 2000.
The national figures should be considered good news, said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University.
With financially plagued cities laying off police officers and switching others to homeland security, with people losing their jobs because of the economy's problems and with increases in gang activity, overall crime easily could be going up rather than down, Fox said.
"The fact that it isn't is a success," he said. "We're holding our own despite difficult times that we're in."
Still, the FBI said in the report released Monday, the number of reported rapes nationwide rose by 4 percent and the number of murders grew by 0.8 percent.
The biggest percentage increases in murders were recorded in suburban counties, up 12.4 percent, the FBI's preliminary crime statistics for 2002 showed. Murders declined 1.2 percent in rural counties and were down 14.7 percent in cities of fewer than 10,000 people.
Some city problems are spilling over into adjacent suburbs that have become more urbanized, said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. "The distinctions between cities and suburbs are sort of blurred now," he said.
Penn State University professor Darrell Steffensmeier said rates continue to be so low in suburban areas that just a slight increase in murders could cause a huge percentage jump.
"The homicide rate is very small; you have statistical blips," said Steffensmeier, a professor of sociology and crime, law and justice.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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