By McKenna Ross
Las Vegas Review-Journal
LAS VEGAS — Gov. Joe Lombardo vowed to “put teeth back into Nevada’s penal code” through a proposed crime and public safety bill he introduced this week.
The Republican governor said Senate Bill 457 — which he calls the “Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act” — has provisions that increase criminal penalties in a variety of areas including cyberstalking, retail theft, DUIs and fentanyl trafficking. A hearing on the bill has not been scheduled.
“This legislation was drafted to put teeth back into Nevada’s penal code, hold criminals accountable and empower judges and prosecutors to support victims of crime,” Lombardo said, flanked by uniformed officials and prosecutors during a press conference in Carson City on Tuesday.
The sweeping public safety bill may be difficult to pass as introduced, in part because of its long-term fiscal impacts during a session with a tighter budget. The Department of Corrections estimated a $42.2 million effect on future biennia, largely due to the increased costs associated with more offenders and incarcerations, according to a fiscal note.
“As a law enforcement officer for 34 years and a former sheriff, I’ve seen public safety legislation impact our communities and neighborhoods firsthand — both for the better and for the worse,” Lombardo, who was the Clark County Sheriff from 2015 to 2023, said during the media event.
SB457 is the second of Lombardo’s five priority pieces of legislation to be introduced. Last week, the administration detailed its housing policy bill; he still has three other pieces on economic development, education and health care reform.
Here are some of the policies proposed in SB457:
Target repeat offenders
The bill increases punishments for repeat offenders by redefining a “habitual criminal” as someone who has previously convicted of a felony twice — down from five times. That would require a prison sentence of five to 20 years. A more severe repeat offender — with stricter sentencing enhancements of at least 10 years to life without parole — would be redefined as three previous felony convictions instead of the seven described in current law.
The bill also targets those who commit a crime while on bail for a different crime by imposing an imprisonment of one to 20 years.
“When someone’s out on bail, when people charged with a felony commit a new felony while out on bail or pretrial release, they demonstrated disregard for the law and a continuing threat to the community,” Washoe County District Attorney Christopher Hicks said.
DUI penalties are also increased in the bill, including for repeat offenders. Under the bill, a felony DUI offender in a substance abuse treatment diversion program who drives impaired again can be subject to another felony charge. Penalties for DUI causing death also increase under the bill, to five to 25 years. Some offenses could rise to second-degree murder punishments.
Crack down on retail theft
The bill would revamp Nevada’s retail theft laws — a top concern of the state’s business community — by lowering the felony retail theft threshold from $1,200 to $750 and creating enhanced sentencing guidelines for a third felony offense.
Hicks blamed the 2019 Legislature for increasing the felony theft threshold to $1,200, or $250 higher than neighboring California . He said, for example, an outlet mall in Sparks has seen a 248 percent rise in theft calls for service to law enforcement agencies between 2022 and 2024.
Fentanyl trafficking penalties and treatment programs
The bill lowers the amounts of fentanyl possessed to be considered guilty of trafficking. The lowest level starts at 4 grams — down from 28 grams. Someone has 28 grams or more could be guilty of “high-level trafficking” according to the bill.
SB457 also calls on law enforcement agencies to establish a medically assisted treatment program or a substance abuse disorder program for eligible incarcerated people. But those programs are based on the state funding available, and the bill does not have an allocation tied to those programs.
Address crimes against vulnerable groups
The bill expands the list of a cyberstalker’s potential targets to include dating partners.
“The bill recognizes that stalkers often seek to terrorize their victims through other members of their household or family or someone who they’re having a dating relationship with,” Hicks said. “It empowers prosecutors and law enforcement to hold them accountable.”
The legislation also would create harsher penalties for child pornography by making each image or video a separate offense. It also adds robbery and kidnapping, as well as attempted robbery and kidnapping, to the list of what constitutes domestic violence.
One section of SB457 would add expectations for juvenile courts in cases where a student commits violence against a school employee. The child would not be released from juvenile court before a detention hearing, where an evaluation would be ordered for no more than two weeks after that hearing.
A portion of the bill would eliminate court diversion program options for offenders guilty of elder or child abuse.
—
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com..
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
