Metro hosts Coffee with a Cop in Sun City to tout increased Las Vegas police presence

Residents had a chance to meet, chat and enjoy coffee with police officers during Coffee with a Cop June 27 at Desert Vista Community Center in Sun City Summerlin.

The room was so packed, maintenance workers had to unfold moving walls for access to another section to accommodate everyone.

The reason for so much interest was a short-lived crime spree from April 7-10 that saw the retirement community of roughly 8,000 homes hit with two attempted robberies of residents at gunpoint, two break-ins at the Sun City computer lab at the Pinnacle Community Center, 2205 Thomas W. Ryan Blvd., where 12 laptops valued at roughly $11,000 were stolen, and three home break-ins.

Chase Bank, 9350 Sun City Blvd., was also held up around that time, a crime that has since been solved.

“My main concern is that when we buy here, although not advertised as a gated community, we all think it is because of the installations at each (ingress),” said Diana Matter, a Sun City resident. “We have no control over who comes in or out. We’ve heard so many people have had smash-and-grab incidents, so we’ve been putting extra (precautions) in place.”

Those extra precautions, she said, include metal security doors and laminate on the windows that keeps the glass from shattering. Her concerns were echoed before the meeting began by those who oversee the community.

“When we had the major crime events recently, two months ago, including armed robbery,” said David Steinman, president of the Sun City Summerlin Board of Directors, “the community said it wanted action. So we had Coffee (with a Cop), but it was a one-on-one format. This format, it’s an entire group, and questions will be (taken and answered) for the entire group. That’s what they wanted.”

Residents also wanted more of a police presence in the area on a regular basis, he said, not just after a crime occurs.

In response, the Metropolitan Police Department has committed to having a patrol car drive through the community for each of its three shifts, something it began in March.

Nan Stevenson, recruiter and assistant trainer for the Sun City Patrol, said it’s important the community connects with Metro.

“It’s great to see them roll by,” she said of the new patrol policy. “A friend of mine said it’s like waving a flag. People notice. … I think it’ll act as a deterrent.”

Seated on stage were Metro’s Lt. Nick Farede, Sgt. Kyle Ward, who oversees the Community Policing Squad at Northwest Area Command, and Kathy Cassell, crime prevention specialist for Metro.

Farede told the crowd that the Sun City Patrol was one of the better ones he’d seen.

“You have people committed to working 24/7, including holidays,” he said. “That is a good conduit of information … if there are some grandkids who moved in who are causing problems, we need to know that information so we can address those problems.”

He said the crimes seen in Sun City Summerlin are crimes of opportunity.

“As I told you in that first meeting,” said Farede, “I cannot protect you if you leave your garage open and you’re in the backyard doing something. You need to not make yourself an easy target.”

Those looking for a vacant home will often walk the golf courses at night, Farede said. Metro recently arrested such a man from Arizona who was using such tactics and taking the loot back to Arizona to sell it. A computer taken from the computer lab was recovered. There was also a chop shop uncovered — not for cars but for golf cart parts.

“So we’ve been putting a lot of work in here, but what I can tell you is that from the events that have been generated here, over 65 percent are generated from us, not you calling 311 or 911. So we’ve been here almost 200 times since I last saw you guys for Coffee with a Cop, just in 45 days,” said Farede, “and all within the boundaries of Sun City.”

On Aug. 26, another area command is expected to open at 8445 Eldora Ave., a site currently housing Metro’s Traffic Unit, which will be renamed the Spring Valley Area Command. It will function as a Patrol/Investigative Area Command like the other locations and is expected to come online later this summer. It will free up the Northwest Area Command so that it no longer has to answer calls east of U.S. Highway 95.

“That’s where the shootings, the stabbings, the few homicides we have will typically happen, so that’s good, and it’ll free up our resources, but as with everything, it comes with a catch,” Farede said.

That catch involves his staff being reduced by 31 officers and five detectives. It means seven to eight cops on day shift for the area, eight or nine on swing shift and six on graveyard. He said that staffing would remain in effect at least until spring or summer 2017.

“But I’m hoping our response time is a little bit quicker because they won’t be coming from so far away,” Farede added.

Cassell has been with the Northwest Area Command for 14 years and will go to residents’ homes to show them how best to secure their property. She relayed ways to keep safe, which included having one’s emergency contact information on file with the Sun City Patrol.

She lamented the amount of feedback Metro was getting from area residents.

“I only have 16 active block groups in all of Sun City,” she said. “That many in (such a large) community? That’s not on me. That’s on the residents. … I can’t think of any other community that has more viable people to be the eyes and ears that has more flexible schedules that allow you to be here more than those who have families and schools and other activities.”

She said her stats show less than 8 percent of crime occurs in neighborhoods with Neighborhood Watch programs.

Metro has done more community presentations at Sun City Summerlin than any other community in the northwest despite being the quietest area. About a year ago, it hosted a “property identification” day so that should there be any burglaries, recovered stolen property could be returned to the rightful owners.

For those interested in tracking events in their area, Metro maintains a crime map on its website at lvmpd.com, found under the “Protect Yourself” tab. Cassell suggested only searching within a half-mile radius of your home to stay within your neighborhood.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.