New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas is the special event of special events. Visitors come here with expectations as high as their air fares. And while many thousands of valley residents join tourists in packing restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and showrooms, many additional thousands of Southern Nevadans are on the job to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
That includes local police and the Nevada Highway Patrol, who understand that working in law enforcement in Clark County means ringing in each Jan. 1 on duty, in uniform. When your charge is keeping roads and highways safe during a night of partying, and keeping the peace between a few hundred thousand revelers on the Strip, it’s all hands on deck.
By all accounts, this week’s celebration was a safe one. The worst incident police had to deal with took place at Circus Circus, where a 20-year-old man fired a gun inside the property. He was subdued by hotel security and guests, then arrested. Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell said there were five other arrests on the Strip, 10 arrests at the Fremont Street Experience downtown and 10 DUI arrests. Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Jeremie Elliott said troopers made 615 traffic stops and 48 DUI arrests around town.
New Year’s Eve work is typically thankless and frequently involves great indignity. (No one likes cleaning up after themselves or their loved ones, to say nothing of complete strangers.) To all who did the jobs that made New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas enjoyable for so many, our gratitude.
