To catch a thief

The valley's quick, deliberate march up the country's auto theft rankings was too much for police Lt. Robert DuVall to bear. When Las Vegas hit No. 1 last year, something had to change.

"We had to swallow our pride. We had to realize that what we were doing wasn't working," said Lt. DuVall, who heads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's property crimes bureau.

Focusing on the recovery of stolen vehicles was out. After consulting other law enforcement officials around the country on how to catch car thieves, Las Vegas police embraced new tactics and technology. They reorganized a multi-agency task force and began working with the Nevada Highway Patrol and Henderson and North Las Vegas police to simultaneously target theft rings, chop shops and lone carjackers and criminals.

The early results of the department's wholesale changes are encouraging. The number of vehicles stolen in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County through Sept. 30 is down 15 percent from the same period last year. When the total is adjusted to account for population growth, the valley's auto theft rate has dropped about 23 percent.

North Las Vegas and Henderson have seen reductions in the number of vehicle thefts this year as well.

Among the tools that are working for police: equipping "bait" cars with video recording devices and remote shutoff capabilities to nab thieves in the act. Police are catching about one thief every other day using this tactic alone.

Police still have a long way to go to tame auto theft in the valley.

Despite the reductions, more than 13,000 vehicles have been stolen in Metro's jurisdiction alone this year. Nevadans pay some of the highest car insurance premiums in the country, and the number of auto thefts in Clark County contribute significantly to those costs.

But Lt. DuVall and his team deserve a lot of credit for recognizing that their approach had to be completely rethought -- and for showing urgency in doing so.