Lawmakers on Thursday allocated more than $400,000 for the Las Vegas Justice Court to report data on crimes originating from the Strip.
The Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee approved the funding during a meeting in Las Vegas. The court asked for the money to comply with requirements from a portion of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s sweeping crime bill passed in November that compels the court to report crime data to lawmakers on cases that happen in the resort corridor.
“The funding is critical,” Las Vegas Justice Court Chief Judge Melisa De La Garza said Thursday. “We would like to have this data be available to help us with decisions regarding not only the corridor court, but crimes across our community.”
Lawmakers allocated $61,600 to the Justice Court for the current fiscal year, and $341,600 next fiscal year. The money was requested to update the court’s IT infrastructure and create an automated system to generate the data reports.
The allocations make up just over 25 percent of the money the crime bill set aside for distribution to the state’s court system to carry out the legislation.
The sections of the bill addressing the resort corridor stemmed from the aftermath of the court ending the controversial Resort Corridor Court program in late 2024. The program, where one or two judges oversaw all cases originating from the Strip, coincided with those judges increasingly issuing “order-out orders” that banned defendants from the area.
Critics have said the court program targeted homeless people in the Strip area accused of trespassing.
De La Garza previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the court does not intend to reinstate it in its prior form.
The crime bill, passed during November’s special session, pushed for the return of the court but could not mandate that the judicial branch reinstate the program. It did require the court to submit yearly crime data to legislators and monthly data to Clark County commissioners.
Law enforcement officials and the gaming industry were strong voices behind the creation of the court program and have pushed for its return since the judges ended it, the Review-Journal previously reported. The Nevada Resort Association also worked with lawmakers on the portions of the crime bill addressing the resort corridor.
Virginia Valentine, the president of the Nevada Resort Association, told lawmakers on Thursday that casino security staff reported fewer repeat offenders while the court was operational. Valentine said she supported the request for funding to the court as a way to access comprehensive data.
“The stakeholders invested in the resort corridor’s success have continually asked for transparency from the Justice Court, as it is essential to understanding what strategies were working, what gaps existed, and how best to address repeat offenders moving through the system,” Valentine said.
According to data previously released by Justice Court and analyzed by the Review-Journal, trespassing was the most common offense in cases with an order-out order while the Resort Corridor Court was operational. The data also showed that few defendants with an order-out order were accused of a violent crime.
De La Garza has said that the crime bill’s data reporting requirements include vague terms that have been difficult for court staff to define.
Justice Court staff told lawmakers on Thursday that they can begin processing the data in June and start working to generate annual reports in August.
“The Las Vegas Justice Court is in a position at this point where we just don’t have the infrastructure — the IT infrastructure — to keep all of the statistics that we are now required to report on both a monthly and an annual basis,” De La Garza said during Thursday’s meeting.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.
