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Southern Nevada detectives solve high percentage of homicide cases
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:11 a.m.
Las Vegas homicide detectives sometimes begin their investigations with a body and little else.
That's how it was in May, when a slain 27-year-old man was discovered in the bushes near the loading docks at Caesars Palace.
It also was the case in October, when a 19-year-old man was gunned down outside his southwest valley home as he and his girlfriend walked to his car.
Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said both slayings happened at night and witnesses were few. Yet within days of each homicide, detectives had identified and arrested suspects.
Roberts said recent resolutions of the cases involving Dominique Evans, a soccer and basketball coach, and Brad Flamm, a restaurant waiter at Trevi in the Forum Shops, helped push the Metropolitan Police Department's homicide clearance rate to its highest point ever.
Clearance is the police term for solving a crime. As of Nov. 23, the Police Department's Homicide Section had achieved a clearance rate of 83 percent for the 108 homicides in its jurisdiction this year.
Roberts trumpeted the work of the department's 24 full-time homicide detectives in reaching the all-time high.
"They take these cases very seriously and don't get a lot of credit," Roberts said. "On the other side, it shows the people who commit these heinous crimes that we're going to arrest them."
Between 2005 and 2007, the Homicide Section's clearance rate hovered around 67 percent. The national average for police department clearance of homicide cases in 2008 was 64 percent, according to an annual report from the FBI.
Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson police consider a homicide solved if one of three things is accomplished: a suspect is arrested; an arrest warrant is issued for a suspect; or a suspect dies, such as in a murder-suicide.
Because homicides are the "ultimate crime," Roberts said, his section utilizes all available resources to solve a case.
Officials also have implemented several changes during the past few years that enable detectives to solve more slayings, Roberts said. One is to conduct a thorough review of killings that have gone unsolved for 90 days or more.
Roberts said the department now assigns up to six detectives to difficult cases. In the past, only three detectives would have been assigned.
Roberts said overtime is readily approved for cases that require it.
Although he couldn't say how much overtime the department expended on homicide investigations in each of the last two years, he said the section did not exceed its allotted overtime budget.
Roberts said his section also works closely with detectives from the Violent Crimes Section, who are dispatched to scenes where a victim faces life threatening injuries and ends up dying.
Violent Crimes detectives would remain the lead investigators with guidance from the homicide section.
Charles Wellford, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, said unsolved homicides grab the attention of the public.
"When police are not successful, it causes a lack of confidence in them," Wellford said.
He said the Las Vegas department's 83 percent clearance rate is high, but not unheard of for larger police departments. "It's unusual, but not atypical."
Wellford is analyzing homicide clearance rates for police departments in the nation's 100 largest cities during the past 35 years.
Wellford did not have data available on how Las Vegas police ranked. But he mentioned San Jose's police department in California as being well below the national average in solving murders during the mid- to late-1990s. Within the last five years, the department began changing practices and has increased its clearance rate to between 82 percent and 85 percent, he said.
Some of those changes included additional training for patrol officers so they won't contaminate a crime scene.
Wellford said allowing detectives to work on homicides as long as progress is shown, and using new technology in investigations also aided the San Jose department in increasing its clearance rate.
North Las Vegas police Sgt. Tim Bedwell said homicides are given the highest priority among all crimes investigated. His department consistently handles the second-highest number of homicides in the valley.
The department has eight detectives assigned to work homicides, but they also are responsible for other types of cases. Bedwell said at least two detectives are assigned to each murder case.
Bedwell said time is of the essence in murder investigations.
As time passes crucial evidence, such as a weapon or blood-stained clothes, can go missing, he said.
"It's so important to get set off in the right direction as early as possible before things start disappearing and while people's memories are fresh."
Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
Homicides/Solve rate
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Metropolitan | |||||
| Police Department | 152/66% | 157/66% | 125/67% | 134/78% | 108/83%* |
| North Las Vegas | |||||
| Police Department | 20/45% | 23/57% | 33/46% | 11/46% | 16/63%** |
| Henderson | |||||
| Police Department | 9/56% | 5/80% | 9/78% | 4/100% | 3/100%*** |
*As of Nov. 23 ** As of Nov. 10 ***As of Dec. 3
Sources: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson police
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The LVMPD website shows the same outstanding fugitives from 8 years ago.
No new or old fugitives added or removed from the site.
To "The numbers tell the story"
The reported statistics say homicides are down. However, LVMPD does not draw from every resource available about the nunber of homicides.
"YOUR RIGHT!, You must be speaking of the national rate. Where are you getting your numbers?"
State of Nevada, Department of Health and Human Services, Children Fatalities, Clark County website shows the PDF files of these murdered children.
Bravo! to our local officers.
By the above numbers, the murder rate is DOWN not up in every local jurisdiction.
YOUR RIGHT!, You must be speaking of the national rate. Where are you getting your numbers?
This article does not address the fact the murder rate is up significantly. Las Vegas children's murders are up 280%.