Clark County board OKs temporary road closure to fight crime
The Clark County Commission on Tuesday approved plans to temporarily limit vehicle access to a northeast Las Vegas Valley neighborhood in an effort to reduce crime. 
The 90-day test, requested by Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, unanimously passed without discussion. It wasn’t immediately clear when two of three entrances to the Sierra Sunrise neighborhood near Lake Mead and Hollywood boulevards would be closed. Pedestrian traffic will not be affected, police said.
A review of the proposal was originally scheduled to be heard at the Oct. 2 Clark County Commission meeting, which was canceled after the Route 91 Harvest shooting the previous day.
Between Jan. 1 and late September, the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the neighborhood 769 times, including at least one homicide and nine shootings, department data show.
In September, Kirkpatrick told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the plan would not cost the county additional money, as it will use barriers and reflectors it already has to block access. Metro will monitor criminal activity while the barriers are up, determine their effectiveness and share further recommendations with the county.
Police said closing two of the access points to the neighborhood would deter criminals by giving them only one way in and one way out and improve the chances of catching them.
“The No. 1 focus for the department is violent crime, and so that’s the main reason we want to start this project, is try to affect the violence that’s happening in Las Vegas,” said Metro Sgt. Landon Law, who works in community outreach at the police substation that serves the northeast valley.
Law added that Metro in the past had successfully deterred crime using a similar entry-restriction tactic in the northwest valley.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
