Las Vegas sheriff says violent crime down, praises community policing

Sheriff Kevin McMahill touted a reduction in violent crime in a Tuesday interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but raised concerns about fentanyl.

Homicides are trending down about 18 percent this year and robberies are down about 20 percent, he said. While there was an increase in auto theft last year, McMahill said, car theft has also decreased this year.

Aggravated assaults are down about 6 percent, according to Metropolitan Police Department statistics.

Violent crime and robberies also decreased in 2023, McMahill previously said. Murders were down 12 percent in 2023.

“We’re really seeing overall violence is decreasing in our city for the second year in a row,” said McMahill, who was elected sheriff in 2022. “So I’m pretty proud of that.”

He said the main reason for those reductions is an emphasis on community policing.

“The number one reason that we’re down in violent crime across the board is not because of putting handcuffs on everybody,” McMahill said, “but it’s really about developing those relationships in the communities.”

“The streets always know who committed the crime,” he added. “And I believe that wholeheartedly. It’s just whether or not we’re good enough to get to the people and have enough (of a) relationship with those individuals that’ll tell us who did it.”

Metro has worked to increase community engagement and has started African American, Hispanic, LGBTQ and Asian alliances.

Over 90 percent of homicides in Las Vegas have been solved for more than a decade, he said, whereas other cities struggle to solve half of their homicide cases.

“If you are a victim of a homicide here, the perpetrator’s going to jail,” he said. “That’s a big message that is sent to those individuals that are out there committing crimes in our community.”

There have been 78 homicides so far this year, compared to 95 last year, according to a Sept. 6 Metro report.

While Metro has seen a decrease in violent crime, the department is seeing more fentanyl and fentanyl derivatives in all kinds of street drugs, McMahill said.

“Coke, meth, heroin. Just about everything’s being cut with fentanyl, even marijuana,” he said.

Fentanyl is hard to immediately detect, he said, and it takes months to get toxicology information for suspects.

The amount of Narcan the department is using on overdose victims indicates fentanyl has become a major part of the street drug situation, he said.

According to the Southern Nevada Health District, 279 Clark County residents have died from an overdose involving an opioid between Jan. 1 and Sept. 10, 2024, compared to 315 over the same time period in 2023.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.