Oxnard Studies Convenience Store Limits : Crime: An analyst says the high number of police calls involving the city’s nine such stores are straining an understaffed department.

Prompted by a city councilwoman who believes convenience stores are magnets for crime and blight, Oxnard officials are studying ways to limit the number of such markets built in the city.

Councilwoman Ann Johs, who suggested the study last month, said she is concerned that the amount of time required for police to respond to reports of minor offenses at the stores is straining the city’s police force, which is already 11 officers short of its authorized strength of 166.

“If we want to upgrade the community and make it look better, we have to be more careful about where we let them go,” she said.

In the past 12 months, Oxnard police have had a total of 727 police calls from the city’s nine convenience stores, Oxnard Crime Analyst David Keith said. The Police Department had 75,000 calls for service last year, he said.

Most of the calls from convenience stores--such as 7-Eleven Food Stores and Stop N’ Go Markets--are to report shoplifting, loitering, public drunkenness and an occasional assault, Keith said. Some of the calls are to request police assistance for traffic accidents or other emergencies that take place near the stores, he said.

The Stop N’ Go Market on Rose Avenue in La Colonia, a neighborhood with one of the highest crime rates in the city, was responsible for 190 calls in the past 12 months--the highest call rate of any convenience store in Oxnard, Keith said.

The amount of time and work required of an officer responding to the calls varies, Keith said. A homicide will require “hundreds of hours of police work,” while police usually respond to a complaint about loitering teen-agers by simply driving past the store to frighten the youths away, he said.

“In my view, it’s an ongoing problem,” he said. “It’s not something that has escalated in the last few years or months.”

Dick Gibson, owner of the 7-Eleven store on Channel Island Boulevard in Oxnard, said the most common crime at his store is a “beer run”--the theft of beer.

About once or twice a month, a teen-ager will walk into the store, grab a case of beer and run to a waiting car outside, he said. Gibson said there is not much he can do. The thief is gone by the time the police show up.

Because convenience stores are open late at night and because of the areas in which they are located, crimes such as shoplifting, loitering and public drunkenness are expected in and near them, Gibson said.

“The thing about convenience stores is we are convenient,” he said. “We are open all hours or long hours.”

Oxnard City Atty. Gary L. Gillig said the city cannot ban any particular commercial use but can put restrictions on certain types of businesses.

He said the council can restrict convenience stores to certain commercial zones within the city. Before a store is built, the City Council can require approval of a special use permit, which can force store owners to adopt certain security measures or limit service hours.

The city now requires such a permit for convenience stores that sell liquor, he said.

Gillig said Pasadena adopted such restrictions several years ago.

In 1987, the Ventura City Council adopted a strict set of regulations for convenience stores, city officials said. Under those restrictions, no two convenience stores can be built within 1,000 feet of each other. Stores must be architecturally compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, they cannot have video games and the clerk can have no more than $50 in cash on hand at any time, city officials said.

Ventura Police Lt. A. J. Farrar said he has no statistics for police calls from convenience stores in Ventura but guessed that the number of such calls is high.

At most Oxnard convenience stores, owners have installed mirrors and video cameras to watch customers and deter potential robbers and shoplifters. On several occasions, Claude Guptill, manager of the 7-Eleven store on Channel Island Boulevard, said youngsters have left the store after noticing the mirrors and camera equipment.

Dena Barker, manager of the Circle K Food Market on Oxnard Boulevard, said her store has installed no mirrors or cameras. But, she said, she has trained her employees to identify potential thieves and robbers.

“For example, if it’s a hot day and they are wearing a big, old coat,” she said, “that is a sign right there.”

She said her clerks are instructed to call the police at the first sign of trouble and not to physically confront a criminal.

“Our rule is, if someone steals something you don’t shoot out after them because they may have a weapon,” she said.