Monday, September 20, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
CRIME 2003: LAS VEGAS AND UNINCORPORATED CLARK COUNTY
By JOAN WHITELY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Source: Las Vegas Metropolitian Police Department.
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CRIME 2003 - HENDERSON . Source: Henderson Police Department.
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Crime statistics are used by police departments to match manpower and tools to the patterns set by criminals.
Police departments do not usually use ZIP codes to define their internal service areas, or "beats." But two local police departments -- the Metropolitan Police Department and Henderson Police Department -- were able to break down their crime data by ZIP code for the Review-Journal.
The North Las Vegas Police Department, however, said it could not provide crime data by ZIP code, so the city's ZIP codes are not included in the accompanying crime charts.
Certain crimes, such as a homicide, may be associated with a specific ZIP code because that is where the body was found. "If you don't know where the crime took place, the crime (is assigned to) the jurisdiction where the body is," notes Keith Paul, a civilian public-information officer for Henderson police.
The Metropolitan Police Department covers Las Vegas and unincorporated portions of Clark County, or the lion's share of the Las Vegas Valley, with proportionately higher counts of crimes.
Some ZIP codes straddle two cities, so the same ZIP code may have its crime data split between two police departments.
Within the Metropolitan Police Department jurisdiction, the top ZIP code for murder was 89101 (24 homicides in 2003), which is in downtown Las Vegas. In Henderson, 89015 had six homicides in 2003.
The Las Vegas police ZIP code with the highest total of motor vehicle thefts in 2003 was just east of the Strip south of Sahara Avenue, in 89109 (1,344 thefts), followed by 89103, which is just west of the Strip south of Spring Mountain Road (919 thefts).
In Henderson the same year, ZIP code 89014 had 482 motor vehicle thefts, with 89015 in second place at 473 thefts.
In 2003, the highest number of rapes, according to Las Vegas police, took place in ZIP code 89109 (102 rapes), followed by 89101 with 71 rapes.
In Henderson the same year, ZIP code 89015 led with 34 rapes, followed by 89014 with 19 rapes.
