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Reposted from Nextdoor:

Hello Henderson Residents,

I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss crime and our safety in Henderson and recap what we have seen in year 2016.

For the last almost five years as the Chief of Police, I have been thankful for the hard work by the men and women of HPD to keep our city safe. I have also thank our community for the support you have for your police department and the cooperation to make us a great place to live, work, and play.

With this amazing partnership, we have been recognized as one of the top ten safest cities over 250,000 people in America for those five years! With that said, the challenge to maintain this designation comes with a ton of hard work, cooperation, and commitment.

In 2016, we have seen an increase of the criminal element coming into our fine community. For example, Henderson unfortunately averages 3-4 homicides a year. Last year we saw nine. Eight of those nine events were domestic related. This brings up the fact we must continually educate people about the potential dangers of domestic violence. If you know someone in a volatile relationship, support them to seek some type of assistance. Call police if know of a domestic violence issue occurring.

Our city saw an increase in business robberies for 2016. Unfortunately, there is a saying that 80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the people. Well, that percentage may not be to far off but we do know that serial robbers and burglars are driving up our crime stats. For example, if there were ten robberies in a month, 6-7 may be the same suspect. So it is imperative for us to target these people who are committing the majority of crime.

Our property crimes were down 3% in 2016 overall. It may not seem like that if you and your neighborhood were victims though. But just like with robberies, we are seeing similar suspects committing the majority and the series of these events, such as our rear sliding door break ins.

As a police department we try to be fluid and nimble in shifting resources and tackle the emerging crime trend that is occurring. We have to balance enough patrol officers on the road to ensure a good response time to high priority calls, which is rising in west Henderson due to the growth, and ensuring we have ample detectives and undercover officers tracking those serial suspects. Staffing is always a topic of concern for the PD and we are encouraged with the More Cops/Safety initiative that we will see more bodies coming soon to Henderson. Long tern strategies for officers must be discussed as Henderson and its population grows, as well as Southern Nevada.

An interesting statistical fact for Henderson was that of the approximate 11,000 arrests made in a previous year, 53% are not people from Henderson. We have been seeing more and more suspects coming from other areas, as well from bordering states to commit crimes in our town.

Although your department arrests many of the suspects who commit these crimes, prevention is always a top priority. Our community engagement has increased tremendously, specifically on the Next Door site. In one year we have gone from 8,000 people to 30,000 citizens. We believe this trend is strongly influenced by our communication efforts and information sharing.

Another example is reporting crime. We recently arrested three different groups we believe were responsible for many of the burglaries occurring in our North area command and Green Valley/Anthem area. In all these cases, a citizen either reported suspicious people sitting in a car on their street or took a photo of a car and a license plate. This was key in the police tracking these individuals down. None of these suspects reside in Henderson and two groups had folks from a bordering state. But there are suspects that emerge all the time and we must recognize that and take preventive measures, such as leave lights on, security cameras, alarms, dogs, decorative security doors, etc.....

Either way, citizen involvement is a force multiplier for the police. Your eyes and ears are needed. With the events in 2016, I am unsure if we will maintain being on that top ten list. We are still a safe community though.

In 2017, our commitment has always been the same: To make Henderson the safest city in the Country.

I am excited for 2017 with a couple of initiatives that I feel will help keep you informed and build our partnership. We have a new crime mapping system coming very soon so you can see reported crimes. Typically many of you saw a third party company providing our data to you, but now you can get it direct from the PD. The third party companies still get our data and will put it out there also. No matter what you choose, stay informed. Secondly, we have been working on our own camera registration program where we can leverage your home security pictures and videos to help solve our crimes. As I stated before, some of the last crime series were solved by photos. This is coming soon and I ask for your support and participation when we launch the program. Also, do not forget about our Citizen Police Academy. If you want to really understand the how and why of what HPD does, I encourage you to attend.

Henderson is a great place to live and your police department is working very hard to be responsive to community needs and keep everyone safe. I know that by working together we can be proud to call Henderson our Home!

HPD looks forward to serving our community for 2017.

Thanks for your time and support,

Chief Patrick Moers

[jdean3375]

This is awesome.. I have been thinking about relocating my family to Henderson for the mere fact that it is a top rated city in the country for low crime and great schools! Whenever I research a city, city-data.com is my first step. To look through and see this very detailed and compassionate msg from Henderson's Police Chief, omg!! It just makes the decision for me so much easier. His concern and dedication to the safety of the city really really impresses me. This is non-existent in the city if Memphis, TN where I reside smh. Anyways, Kudos to you sir!! Keep up the great work serving the community!

[WVREDLEG]

Originally Posted by jdean3375

This is awesome.. I have been thinking about relocating my family to Henderson for the mere fact that it is a top rated city in the country for low crime and great schools! Whenever I research a city, city-data.com is my first step. To look through and see this very detailed and compassionate msg from Henderson's Police Chief, omg!! It just makes the decision for me so much easier. His concern and dedication to the safety of the city really really impresses me. This is non-existent in the city if Memphis, TN where I reside smh. Anyways, Kudos to you sir!! Keep up the great work serving the community!

He just quit under scrutiny for questionable fundraising activity and underwent an internal investigation for same. His deputy chief quit also.

[DoggieMatic]

Originally Posted by jdean3375

This is awesome.. I have been thinking about relocating my family to Henderson for the mere fact that it is a top rated city in the country for low crime and great schools!

It's relatively low-crime & great schools, but some of it depends on where in Henderson you can afford to live -- there are areas that are 'ghettos' & areas that are very affluent. Violent crime is relatively low,with the stereotypical people committing most of it, but as the city of Henderson pushes so hard for growth Growth GROWTH (instead of maintaining or improving the status-quo), crime will increase for both basic population-density issues as well as increased attention from the parasitic stereotypes that feed off of the relative 'softness' of the residents.

[DoggieMatic]

Originally Posted by WVREDLEG

He just quit under scrutiny for questionable fundraising activity and underwent an internal investigation for same. His deputy chief quit also.

Wouldn't it be nice if City of Henderson leadership had the bravery & integrity to inform us electors/taxpayers/residents of the details of the situation, instead of hiding behind the "employee confidentiality" curtain?

The basics that are known is that Chief Moers officially supported a formal, 501(c)(3) group whose formal purpose was to support his department & officers via fundraising -- the objective being to fund things that'd directly benefit HPD, but that HPD couldn't easily appropriate the funds for directly. Some of the voluntary leaders of the group were & are owners/operators of businesses in Henderson, which sounds completely normal to me, as most fundraising/charitable groups are operated or at least supported by local business executives & other "community leaders."

But we're left to just assume that the City Manager & investigators found some sort of nefarious intent or criminal conspiracy behind the two senior HPD leaders support for the Friends of Henderson Police Department Foundation, as at least two Board members of the Foundation have companies with city contracts (isn't it fair to assume those fairly large city contracts had to & did receive approval from the city council?).


If there's a crime, CHARGE THEM! If there's no crime, set a new policy or something. Either way, inform your citizens of the facts of the matter.

Alas, based on what we do know, it's easy to believe that the City of Henderson used city funds & and/or coercion to basically pay-off Moers to go away quietly -- such a shame, for a respected man who spent much of his life working to protect the city of Henderson.