"I make no excuses for it. We're at number one, and it's a dubious distinction," said Lt. Robert Duvall, who heads the Las Vegas police's auto theft unit.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported that there were 22,441 vehicles stolen in Clark County in 2006, a rate of 1,311 stolen for every 100,000 residents that year.
That rate was actually lower than 2005's, when thieves took 22,465 vehicles -- 1,360 vehicle thefts for every 100,000 Clark County residents.
Auto thefts were down across the nation by about 2.3 percent in 2006, but they weren't down enough in Clark County to keep it from the top position on the National Insurance Crime Bureau's "Hot Spots" list, said Frank Scafidi, the organization's director of public affairs.
Clark County's top ranking is the culmination of the year-to-year trend the organization has been tracking since 2001, he said.
"If you look back over the past few years, Las Vegas was three, then two then one," Scafidi said.
Officials have said the Las Vegas Valley is a good place for car thieves because of the population growth and high number of parking garages and parking lots.
About a quarter of the vehicles stolen in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County are taken by professional car thieves who often run "chop shops" that take apart vehicles and sell the parts, Metropolitan Police Department officials said. The remainder of the cases are "transportation thefts," cases in which vehicles are stolen to get from one place to another. Those cases include not just "joy rides" but also cars stolen for use in other crimes.
The 1996 Honda Accord was the car most frequently stolen in Nevada in 2005. The 1995 Honda Civic and 1990 Toyota Camry were second and third on that list. Those older vehicles were stolen most often because there are a lot of them on the road and their parts can be sold easily, authorities said. The list of vehicles most frequently stolen in Nevada in 2006 was not available Monday.
The Metropolitan Police Department tallied 19,677 vehicles stolen in its jurisdiction -- Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County -- in 2006, which is a 1.4 percent decrease from the 19,950 in 2005.
Duvall said Las Vegas police stepped up several anti-car theft programs in 2006, including ramping up the multi-agency Viper unit to crack down on professional auto thieves, launching multiple public awareness campaigns and using "bait cars" to catch suspects.
"We're learning, and we're catching the right people," he said.
"We started getting our act together in 2006 and doing good things," Duvall said.
Police say the bait cars have been a particular success for the Las Vegas police. From October to December, police made 11 arrests using bait cars.
They've been even more effective this year. From January to the middle of March, police made 43 arrests using bait cars, Duvall said.
The number of auto thefts from January to April 14 in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County was down 22 percent compared with the total for the same period of 2006, Duvall said.
"We're not satisfied with a 22 percent decrease," he said. "The most dangerous term in law enforcement is 'status quo.' I'm going to make sure that we don't make number one again. But we have to wear this tag for a year."
Eighteen-year-old Magdaleno Revilla wasn't satisfied Monday either. His 1994 Acura Integra was stolen from in front of his house near Mojave Road and Washington Avenue on April 15.
He said he was speaking to his girlfriend about 4 a.m. when he heard someone starting his Acura. By the time he was out his door, his car was down the street.
Still, he said he was surprised to hear that Clark County had the highest rate of auto theft in the nation.
"I thought it was California," he said, speaking at a local impound lot on Monday where he was picking up his recovered car -- which was missing its engine.
Five of the top ten areas for auto theft were in California, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Stockton, Calif., had the second highest rate of auto theft in the nation, followed by Visalia-Porterville in Central California.
As for the valley's other police departments, North Las Vegas saw an increase in auto thefts and attempted thefts, said Tim Bedwell, a spokesman for that city's police department. Last year, 2,652 vehicles were stolen in North Las Vegas, a 6 percent increase over 2005's total of 2,484, he said. In North Las Vegas, vehicles are often stolen by people who want to commit additional crimes such as burglaries or drug-related offenses, Bedwell said.
Henderson saw a decrease in its number of stolen vehicles last year. In 2006, there were 1,151 vehicles stolen in Henderson, an 18 percent decrease compared with 2005's 1,408 total, said Keith Paul, spokesman for the Henderson Police Department. Paul credited the Viper program and increased citizen awareness.
Insurance representatives said auto theft is a factor in high insurance rates. However, national rankings such as the National Insurance Crime Bureau don't usually play a part in high premiums, said Scafidi.
"Insurance companies don't use this (the ranking) one bit," he said. "Companies base their premiums on their own risk factors and their own research."
Nevada drivers pay the 13th highest auto insurance rates in the county, said Jim Denton, spokesman for the Nevada Insurance Council.
Nevadans pay high insurance rates because the state has such a high number of auto arsons and its totals of traffic fatalities from people running red lights, bodily injury claims and auto theft are all among the highest in the nation, said Denton.
"At the end of the day, we're paying for all this," he said.
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