AUTO THEFTS DROP

There's finally some good news about auto theft in Clark County.

The number of vehicles stolen in the county from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 dropped about 15 percent compared with the same period last year, according to Las Vegas police statistics.

The rate of auto theft, adjusted for population growth, dropped about 23 percent.

In the first nine months of 2007, there were 13,055 auto thefts, down from 15,303 autos stolen in 2006 during the same period.

Police say new tactics, such as using bait cars, and a beefed-up auto theft unit has led to the decrease.

"We had to swallow our pride. We had to realize that what we were doing wasn't working," said Lt. Robert DuVall, head of the Metropolitan Police Department's property crimes bureau.

Clark County has been listed as one of the worst areas for auto theft nationwide for several years running. In 2003, the county had the fourth highest rate of auto theft in the nation, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a national insurance organization.

Clark County jumped up one slot per year until 2006, when it had the highest rate of auto thefts in the country. There were 22,441 vehicles stolen in 2006, even though that year auto thefts were down 2.6 percent nationwide from the previous year.

High auto theft rates also affect pocketbooks. Auto thefts, as well as insurance fraud and high accident rates, are reasons why Nevadans pay, on average, about $300 more than the national average in insurance premiums per year, said Jim Denton, spokesman for the Nevada Insurance Council.

DuVall said police decided they needed a new approach to the problem.

For example, he said, Las Vegas police previously were focusing on recovering stolen vehicles but didn't use emerging tactics like bait cars, which appear to be normal cars but are outfitted with video and which police can turn off remotely once they are stolen.

Police also have been using other forms of technology that have come on the market to detect auto theft.

For about two years, officers have used a scanner that reads license plates to determine whether they match those on cars that have been stolen. Typically, the tactic is used in areas that have high auto theft rates.

Police also started learning from other law enforcement agencies across the country on how to fight auto theft.

He said authorities re-organized the Vehicle Investigations Project for Enforcement and Recovery, or VIPER, a team that includes officers from the Nevada Highway Patrol, Henderson and North Las Vegas.

The VIPER team was split into two units, one that went after professional car thieves and chop shops and another that went after joy-riders and people who steal vehicles to commit other crimes.

DuVall said the joy-riders and people who steal cars to use in other crimes make up about 70 percent of auto theft. The professional thieves account for about 30 percent.

"I liken auto theft to fighting an octopus," DuVall said. "If you only fight one arm, the other seven are going to beat you to death. You've got to fight all arms at the same time."

He said bait cars have been especially successful. Las Vegas police arrested 11 people from mid-October 2006 to Dec. 31, 2006, by using bait cars.

In 2007, police have netted 150 suspects using the bait cars, DuVall said.

North Las Vegas also saw a decrease in auto thefts. Officer Sean Walker, spokesman for the department, said auto theft there dropped about 13 percent from Jan. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30, 2007 compared with the same time last year.

North Las Vegas joined the VIPER team about a year ago.

Henderson has had 942 auto thefts in 2007 compared with 1,379 for all of 2006, said Keith Paul, spokesman for Henderson police.

A breakdown for auto thefts for the first nine months of 2006 in Henderson wasn't available on Tuesday.

The most commonly stolen vehicles in Nevada in 2006, according to the Nevada Insurance Council, were the 1991 Honda Accord, the 1995 Honda Civic, the 1990 Toyota Camry, the 1994 Nissan Sentra and the 2005 Dodge Ram pickup.

Velvet Harris, a 56-year-old woman who lives near Simmons Street and Carey Avenue, was happy to learn that the rate of auto theft has dropped in Southern Nevada. But Harris said she wished police would have cracked down on car thefts sooner.

Her husband's Jeep Cherokee had been stolen from their house twice since 2005. The thieves also once broke the steering column. In both instances, the Jeep was recovered.

"I think it's good, but it's late," she said.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.