Revelers fill the Fremont Street Experience for the New Years Eve party on Saturday December 31, 2022.
Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023 | 4:45 p.m.
The Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved an ordinance today that allows for banning individuals from specific tourist areas for up to a year if they have repeated misdemeanors.
The ordinance would be for two visitor-heavy corridors — the area surrounding Fremont Street in downtown and the north end of the Las Vegas Strip to encompass the Stratosphere.
Chronic offenders are the target of this ordinance, City Attorney Jeff Dorocak said. Metro Police would be able to ban these people from these tourist corridors for repeated misdemeanors rather than put them in jail, he added.
Jason Potts, the chief of the department of public safety, said a systematic review conducted a few years ago revealed that 10% of all chronic offenders account for 60% of all crimes.
Clark County, which covers the Strip, approved a similar ordinance in August.
Metro said they’ve arrested or cited 103 violators in October alone on the Strip. It has led to “great success,” with reduced calls for service for nuisance and person crimes, according to Brandon Oris, captain of the downtown area command for Metro.
“What we’d like to do is see the consistency with our tourist corridor in the city mirror that that we have in the county,” Oris said. “So, it’s been a great tool for us there, and we anticipate it being a great tool for us here. And as you guys know, the more tools that we have to keep the community safe, the business owners safe, the millions of tourists safe is something that is a great benefit to us in the community.” Councilmembers Olivia Diaz and Nancy Brune raised concerns about crime being pushed to small businesses outside of the zones, including on Charleston Boulevard like the Arts District.
“My concern is you’re just pushing it to other commercial corridor, and I know businesses along Charleston have been suffering or suffering even more with just some additional traffic,” Brune said. “So, as a small business advocate, I wanna make sure we’re not just pushing this to businesses outside of some sort of arbitrary corridor and not supporting our small businesses that are outside of that corridor.”
Metro will come back to the city council in six months for a progress report as the council considers expanding the program beyond corridor borders.
“This really is a critical first step for us and it is only to protect everybody, including law enforcement,” said Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who proposed the ordinance.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada, the NAACP Las Vegas, Clark County Black Caucus, Make the Road Nevada, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the Cupcake Girls spoke out against the ordinance.
Tia Smith, an attorney with the ACLU of Nevada, told the council the proposal is “unconstitutionally overbroad” and said it would “likely result in unconstitutional profiling as well as serious violations of the 1st and 14th Amendments.”
