Cleaning up the Strip: Deal with handbillers a good step

After Clark County spent more than a decade fighting -- and losing -- court battles against the aggressive handbillers who pass out risque ads for outcall strippers and escorts on the Strip, Sheriff Doug Gillespie decided to try a different tack.

Court rulings have held Strip sidewalks are public thoroughfares where free speech of all kinds is protected by the First Amendment. But police and hotel owners continue to get complaints from tourists about overly aggressive handbillers shoving the suggestive -- if not outright pornographic -- brochures at family groups and even children, leaving the sidewalks covered in litter.

The sheriff says it was casino developer Steve Wynn who asked if he'd ever considered reaching out to the handbillers directly. So for several months now, using ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein as an intermediary, Las Vegas police have met with owners of the advertising companies in search of a voluntary agreement to reduce complaints.

Not all have agreed. But four firms who represent about 70 percent of the roughly 200 handbillers who line Las Vegas Boulevard each day have agreed to a voluntary code of conduct, in exchange for which police have promised to better train officers on what the handbillers are allowed to do.

Vincent Bartello, owner of the largest such company, Hillsboro Entertainment, says he welcomed the approach. "People don't have to like what we do, but they can talk to us about how we do it. We want to be good neighbors."

Key rules agreed to include staying 20 feet away from crosswalks, not giving any material to people who look younger than 25, refraining from snapping the cards or pamphlets and from whistling or making any other noise, picking up litter and handing out material to tourists' torsos instead of their faces. "If they want it, they take it," says Las Vegas police Capt. Todd Fasulo. "If not, they shouldn't have someone shoving it in their face."

The compromise will probably never end complaints entirely. But the goal is to make a stroll along the Strip more pleasant and less confrontational. And so far, this latest effort seems to be a good step in the right direction.