KVIG Informative

Until recently, if a shooting victim survived, Las Vegas police solved the case only about 3 times in 10. A specialized unit created specifically to fix that number is now closing in on nearly every case it takes.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Violent Gun Crime Unit was created in October 2024 specifically to investigate shootings where a victim was struck but survived — cases the department’s existing solvability rate had historically put at around 30%.

The unit now consists of four teams of eight detectives. In 2025, it made 364 arrests and seized 296 firearms. Through the first part of 2026, the unit made 88 arrests and recovered 85 firearms out of 60 cases investigated.

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LVMPD Captain Tavarez said the unit’s creation traced to a direct observation by the sheriff: the department’s homicide clearance rate ran in the 90th percentile, but its solvability rate for shootings where the victim survived sat closer to 30%. Tavarez said the unit achieved a 100% solvability rate on every case it took in its first year of operation.

The unit’s mission centers specifically on taking shooters and the guns used in those shootings off the street, treating non-fatal shootings with the same investigative intensity historically reserved for homicide cases.

The unit’s creation reflects a broader department strategy shift. LVMPD’s own mid-year statistical briefings this year showed a double-digit year-over-year decline in both homicides and overall violent crime incidents across the valley, with the department citing its Fusus real-time intelligence platform and Safe Village initiatives alongside the Violent Gun Crime Unit’s work as contributing factors.

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LVMPD publishes a weekly crime report and maintains a public crime-mapping tool as part of its transparency efforts, allowing residents to review reported crime activity by neighborhood on an ongoing basis.

A unit built around a single statistic — the number of shootings that go unsolved when the victim lives — has effectively flipped that number in two years. What started as a 30% solvability rate is now closer to total, case by case, gun by gun, off the street.