**LEAD STORY**
The Emergency Response and Research Institute in Chicago has just concluded a study of Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics that show the cities with the lowest clearance rates of crime. The study showed that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department cleared the lowest number of cases based on numbers from 1994. Las Vegas Metro had a clearance rate of only 20.7 percent. The next lowest cities were: Detroit, Buffalo, San Francisco and Miami.
Criminologists believe that the low clearance rate shown by Las Vegas is indicative that crime is difficult to control in an area that is currently growing rapidly in population and where there is a very large influx of tourists.
The Las Vegas, Nevada, Metropolitan Police Department has about 1,300 police officers that patrols a very large jursidiction that has a population of about 779,200 people and sees about 27 million other people that visit, gamble and drink. In 1994, 9,421 violent crimes were reported. Violent crimes include: homicide, manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault and robbery. Of the 9,421 violent crimes reported, only 1,946 resulted in an arrest and prosecution. That comes out to a clearance rate of 20.7 percent.
Next on the list were: Detroit with 21.4 percent, Buffalo at 21.9 percent, the number jumps to 24.5 percent with San Francisco and then Miami had 25.7 percent. The national average rate of clearance in the United States in 1994 was about 45 percent.
In January of 1995, Las Vegas Metro had a new sheriff take office. Since Sheriff Jerry Keller took office, the clearance rate has reportedly risen to about 27 percent. ERRI agrees with Sheriff Keller in saying that it is difficult to compare Las Vegas, Nevada, with other large cities. Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States that is currently seeing an increase of 48,000 people a year. Las Vegas is also what could be called a 24-hour gambling mecca.
Sheriff Keller said, "We're unique in our 24-hour town nature, unique in our growth, unique in the demographics of the community. Any time you have money, you have two things that drive crime -- ego and greed. Greed for wanting the money that someone else has, and ego to think they can continue getting away with it."
Another issue that hampers Las Vegas Metro is that victims of crime that are tourists leave the jurisdiction to return to their home in other states or, in many cases, other countries. Usually, these victims will not return back to Las Vegas to assist authorities in the case should a suspect be apprehended.
1994 FBI statistics of the 25 lowest clearance rates for violent crimes of cities with a population of 250,000 or more:
City -- Population -- Violent Crimes -- Cleared -- Percent