Banned from the Las Vegas Strip? Judges may be allowed to issue ‘stay out’ orders to criminal offenders
By Maddie White
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — Clark County Commissioners are considering expanding a late 1990s-era policy that gave courts the power to issue “stay out” orders on the Las Vegas Strip for certain criminal offenders.
Currently, if you are caught dealing drugs or prostituting, a judge can ban you from the Strip for up to one year. But the newest ordinance revision, which was introduced in last week’s meeting, would make it so they could ban people “as a condition of a suspended sentence or deferred adjudication of any criminal offense.”
The boundaries of this “Order Out Corridor” generally extend from Sahara Avenue in the north to Russell Road in the South, and from Arville in the west to Paradise Road in the east. A map can be found here.
Additionally, anyone who breaks their ban would be guilty of a misdemeanor, according to the proposal.
The changes are proving controversial, similar to when the first ordinance was passed 20 years ago against drug dealers and prostitutes.
The ACLU of Nevada told FOX5 they were concerned it would disproportionately impact street performers and the homeless population. They worry it would make it so businesses could report unwanted individuals, and if it turned out they were in violation of their ban, that they would face consequences of up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
The resorts corridor area is seeing an uptick in total crime. Las Vegas Metro’s Convention Center Area Command, which services the resort corridor, saw a reported 15.8% percent increase in total crimes since last year.
Commissioner Jim Gibson introduced the ordinance revision at last week’s meeting. He was unavailable for an interview before the publishing of this article, however, FOX5 spoke to Strip visitors to get their takes.
“If you’re gonna cause trouble, stay off the Strip,” said one woman. “I just don’t want to get shot while I’m on vacation, cause that doesn’t sound fun to me.”
“We wanna feel safe,” added her friend.
Another visitor told us she was in support of the changes as well. She said, “When people know that something like this is in place, it’s going to discourage a lot of the illegal activities… it would make them think twice about their actions.”
The public hearing for the ordinance revision is on Tuesday, August 2 at 10 a.m. at the Clark County Government Center.
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