Henderson, Nevada
Reducing Stolen Goods through the VECTRS (Vegas E-Commerce Tracking and Reporting System)
Project Overview
Before the U.S. financial crisis occurred, the Henderson Police Department (HPD) had successfully reduced property and robbery crimes, and prevented other crimes such as aggravated assaults from elevating. However, the economic downturn forced HPD to implement a hiring freeze in 2008. With fewer police resources, HPD saw an increase in property crimes and robberies. The Henderson Police Department (HPD also saw a surge in the use of e-trade markets by traditional suspects (selling stolen goods on quick trading sites such as Craigslist, Backpage, etc.). The purpose of Henderson’s SPI project was to develop a data-mining tool based on the Market Reduction Approach (MRA) to identify stolen goods on the Web, return the stolen property to its original owner, and reduce crime and fear of crime in the community.
Methods and Findings
- In 2013 there were close to 1.9 million burglary occurrences (610 incidences per 100,000) in Henderson, Nevada. In the State of Nevada, the burglary rate was actually higher (826 incidences per 100,000).
- In 2014, Burglaries in City of Henderson have increased nearly three percent (3%) over the same period the previous year.
