Simi Has Fewest Major Crimes Among Big Cities

Simi Valley has the lowest number of serious crimes of any city in the nation with a population of more than 100,000, according to six-month figures released by the FBI.

But the eastern Ventura County community may have won by default.

That’s because its nearby rival as a national symbol of community safety, Thousand Oaks, did not send its figures for the first six months of 1991 to the FBI.

A spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which has the law enforcement contract for the city, said the agency was too backed up with work to meet the FBI deadline for the report, released last week.

Still, Thousand Oaks may again beat out its neighbor, as it did last year, when the full 1991 crime figures have been collated in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reports.

“The danger is that just when you start crowing about (the figures), they can change on you,” said Paul Miller, the chief of the Simi Valley Police Department.

Nevertheless, he said: “We don’t do too badly. Eastern Ventura County is a low crime area.”

One problem area so far this year, he said, was homicides--six in the first six months of 1991 contrasted with only one for the same year-ago period.

Thousand Oaks Sheriff’s Cmdr. Bill Wade said he expects his city to again show one of the nation’s lowest crime rates for 1991.

“We have consistently been the lowest in the nation,” he said.

Both Miller and Wade said one of their biggest law enforcement problems has been the proliferation of residential burglaries and auto thefts. Conejo Valley residents have to learn to lock their doors and secure their property, they said.

Simi Valley, with a population just over 100,000, recorded 1,643 serious crimes during the first six months of 1991, an increase of about 7% over the 1990 period.

The figures include such crimes as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.

For all of 1990, however, Thousand Oaks, with a population of more than 104,000, reported 3,116 serious crimes, contrasted with 3,148 for Simi Valley.

Oxnard, with more than 142,000 residents, reported 4,670 serious crime incidents for the first six months of this year, an increase of about 13%.

David Keith, senior crime analyst for the Oxnard Police Department, said that the figure for aggravated assault seemed too high and that it is being reviewed. In that category, the Police Department reported 457 such incidents for the first six months, a 58% increase over the same 1990 period.

On the bright side, Keith said, Oxnard has experienced a 40% per capita decline in burglaries over the past 10 years.

Keith attributed this to the city playing “one of the most active roles in the state in educating residents on burglary prevention.”

About 179 cities nationwide with populations in excess of 100,000 participated in the six-month FBI survey.