Homicides on decline in Clark County

How do you prevent a murder before it happens?

Barring any achievements in science fiction's thought-crime technology, there doesn't seem to be a blanket answer.

But in the past two years, the Metropolitan Police Department has seen a large drop in homicides. It attributes the decline to a new emphasis on intelligence-led policing, which is based on determining risk and identifying potential victims before they're killed.

Through Thursday, the department investigated 82 homicides, the last being the kidnapping and killing of 10-year-old Jade Morris.

That's down from 86 homicides last year, and a huge drop from the first decade of the new millennium. From 2001 to 2010, the department never had fewer than 100 homicides and averaged 137 per year.

"Last year was what we thought would be a historic low," said Capt. Chris Jones, who took over the Robbery/Homicide Bureau this year. "We're looking to push it down even further."

The 168 homicides in the past 24 months were just 11 more than the 157 homicides in 2006, a record year for the agency.

Police and academics agree that murder is among the toughest crimes to prevent. It often happens indoors, away from cops and without premeditation.

"Homicides are tricky because it's often a crime of passion from rage, or impulse, and often the involved victims know each other," said William Sousa, a criminal justice professor at UNLV.

"For all those factors, homicides are difficult to predict in terms of occurrence, and also difficult to track patterns or trends."

For the past several years, Las Vegas police say new prevention strategies played a large part in numbers dropping in the three biggest homicide categories: domestic, drug-related and gang-related.

Among the biggest reductions were domestic homicides.

In 2009, police introduced a "lethality assessment program" aimed at identifying people at high-risk for being killed by their partner.

Jones said officers became required to ask abuse victims a series of questions, including whether their abuser had ever used a weapon, left threatening messages, stalked or choked them.

Choking is a particular precursor for a homicide, police say, and a 2009 law increased domestic strangulation from a misdemeanor to a felony.

If police think abuse victims are at high risk for being killed by their partner, an officer will strongly encourage them to contact a domestic violence shelter and conduct follow-ups with them.

Jones said police also started tracking abusers with a "victim protection tracking unity" program, which follows the most violent people through the criminal justice system to ensure they don't commit another crime.

The programs appear to be working. Domestic homicides fell from 50 in 2008 to 39 in both 2009 and 2010, and to 24 in 2011. This year, there have been 21.

In addition to reducing domestic killings, police have targeted gangs and drugs, which often are related.

The Safe Village community-oriented policing initiative in West Las Vegas began in 2006 and focused on bringing police, community and religious leaders together to educate youth and prevent retaliations.

Sousa said efforts from police and clergy resulted in a 40 percent reduction in calls for service and a 30 percent reduction in hospital admissions for gunshot victims in the area.

The principles of the program have since been implemented in other valley areas, Jones said: "It makes sense to expand the program. You look for leaders in every community, whether they're faith-based or it's the schools. Look for folks with greatest impact that can bring people together within any community."

After a gang shooting, there is a high probability of retaliation. Las Vegas has seen two high-profile examples in the last two years: Seven people were shot at a murder victim's funeral in 2011, and two people were shot in March outside a hospital after an earlier gang shooting at a casino parking garage.

Fortunately, no one died in those shootings.

Jones said that it's important for community members to rally after a shooting and get the suspects off the streets before they become victims themselves. The next step is finding ways for communities to heal, which can prevent further violence.

"If you can do that, you're going to continue to see the success we have," he said.

And it has been successful: In the past five years, police have solved between 75 and 80 percent of their cases. The national average is 60 percent.

Sousa said the prevention philosophy has been a nationwide trend. It's a stark change from the 1980s and 1990s, when police felt their only option was to respond after a killing.

"It used to be a feeling among police that they were the only folks addressing the issue," Sousa said. "They now realize that it's not just police that own the problem. Everyone owns the problem."

While homicides have dropped, police say that overall crime has increased recently. Crime is down almost 20 percent over the past five years but has risen 9 percent this year from 2011.

Jones said calls for service are also up 9 percent above 2011.

The department has cut 238 officer positions over the past few years and is facing a $46 million shortfall. The department has prioritized its cuts, he said, but it could be difficult to have sustained success with a shrinking police force.

That could result in more violent crimes and more killings, he said.

"Now that we're not able to do all those things we know work, we're starting to see our overall numbers creep back up," he said.

"Public safety is expensive. It just comes down to how much the public is willing to pay to have that piece of mind."

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.