Poker Writer
The city of Las Vegas is reviving the “Resort Corridor Court” to exclusively handle crimes committed on the Vegas Strip. Hospitality leaders in Vegas proposed this solution to combat the issue of crime on the Strip, which is a barrier to attracting tourists.
Many have been worried about the reduction in tourists to the Strip. While there are many factors causing the decline in visitors to Vegas, one of the theoretical deterrents has been crime.
The Resort Corridor Court is designed to alleviate those concerns. Its purpose is to prosecute individuals for crimes committed on the Strip, including misdemeanors, and subsequently bar them from the area. The bans can last for up to a year.
Proponents have been pushing to bring it back for months after judges voted to eliminate it following its operation in 2023-24.
One of the proponents, Ted Pappageorge, the secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union Local, stated his support of the revival of the court to the Nevada Independent earlier this year:
The ability for our tourists in the entertainment capital world to be able to feel safe and move around freely on the Strip is critical.
Pappageorge went on to explain that the Strip is the engine of Las Vegas and of Nevada as a whole.
Las Vegas Weekly reported that there is “no timeline” for the re-establishment of the special court. It will return as part of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s major crime bill, which passed in November’s Special Session of the Nevada Legislature.
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History of the Strip Corridor Court
The Resort Corridor Court dates back to 2023. A Clark County Justice Court established it with the goal to stymie repeat offenders on the Strip. The court set it up so that the cases would get priority and not get lost in the shuffle of other cases within the greater city of Las Vegas.
Common offenses that landed individuals in the special court included petty theft, assault, drug offenses, and loitering.
The court did not last a full two years, running from January 2023 to November 2024. Now, the push for its reinstatement comes a year after it was discontinued.
Opponents Say Strip Court Targets Homeless, Allocates Resources Inefficiently
There is significant opposition to the court. The main critique is that the court is unjustly harsh on homeless people. Opponents say that the court punishes the homeless too severely, with loitering as the main justification for prosecutions. They also point to inefficient allocation of resources.
One of the attorneys in the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, Erica Webb, voiced objection on both moral and professional grounds:
It’s literally just a plea factory for homeless people to put them in jail for longer and longer sentences.
Webb said that when she saw individuals serving as much as six months for non-violent petty crimes, she was appalled:
I have never felt so despondent as I was coming out of there. I would cry sometimes, because I was like, ‘What the hell are we doing?’
Other attorneys argued that the court never actually helped reduce crime in any way. According to them, the reduction in crime was thanks to the tireless effort of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Assistant Public Defender John Piro summed up the court:
Basically, it functioned to imprison homeless people in the Clark County Detention Center at taxpayer expense.
Another public defender called it an “administrative nightmare” due to the avalanche of petty misdemeanors. It processed more than 4,000 bans during its time in operation. Many of the cases required housing and transportation for defendants, which were often in short supply.
