The Reflector
Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputies will no longer respond to a number of low-level calls due to staffing shortages, sheriff Chuck Atkins announced Monday.
Starting March 31, deputies won’t respond to certain thefts and property damage calls with no suspect information, some types of fraud incidents, as well as certain types of trespassing and welfare checks, among others, a release from the office announced on March 14.
In the release, Atkins said decreases in staffing required a change in the office’s operations.
“We can no longer sustain the patrol calls for service workload with the current deputy sheriff staffing shortage,” Atkins said.
Atkins said he presented options to the Clark County Council for both short- and long-term solutions. As of the release, the council hasn’t implemented any of those options.
Specifically, deputies will no longer respond to the following:
- Property theft under $750 where there is no suspect information. This does not include robberies or theft of vehicles or guns.
- Theft from a vehicle where there is no suspect information.
- Minimal damage or graffiti to property where there is no suspect information.
- Minor crimes such as property damage, behavioral issues, or mutual fighting involving juveniles at schools when restorative justice measures and administrative measures are available to the school.
- Non-life-threatening harassment phone calls, not including incidents related to domestic violence or stalking.
- Fraud, scams, or identity theft less than $5,000.
- Simple assaults reported after they have occurred when there is nothing beyond transitory pain or minor injuries.
- Reports that do not require immediate police presence or enforcement of criminal law such as information only reports.
- Lost and found property that does not represent a safety concern for the public or an imminent threat. This does not include dangerous drugs or weapons that are found.
- Trespassing where the property owner does not want to press charges.
- Trespassing on public lands, forest property, unoccupied county property and state-owned property.
- Minor traffic or parking complaints and neighborhood problems with no crime nexus.
- Welfare checks on homeless or mentally ill persons when there has been no observed crime and no imminent threat to the public.
“Never in my 40-year law enforcement career, until last year, would I have imagined the Clark County Sheriff’s Office having to take such measures,” Atkins stated in the release.
