Santa Clarita Crime Rate 2nd-Lowest in U.S.

The city of Santa Clarita has the second-lowest crime rate in the entire United States, according to FBI statistics.

During the first six months of 1992, the small city in northern Los Angeles County had the second-lowest crime rate of any city with a population of more than 100,000, the FBI reported Monday. Only the town of Amherst in upstate New York had slightly lower midyear crime rates, an analysis of FBI statistics shows.

Total crime in Santa Clarita dropped from 1,942 offenses for the first six months of 1991 to 1,865 for the same period this year. That means there were only 15.3 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants in Santa Clarita, a city of 121,566 residents patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

In the first six months of 1991, Santa Clarita had 16 crimes per 1,000. The 4.3% crime rate improvement moved Santa Clarita into second place from third place nationwide a year ago.

By contrast, the city of Los Angeles had a crime rate of 50 per 1,000 residents during the six-month period, up slightly from last year. Amherst had just 1,592 serious crimes, or 14.2 crimes per 1,000 people--down from 15.9 crimes per 1,000 people during the same period last year.

“We certainly like to think things here are safe,” said Lt. John VanderHorck, a watch commander in the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, when told of the city’s showing. “Certainly, we have some crime. But it’s a better place to live than a lot of places, absolutely.

“I think it’s a wonderful place to live,” said VanderHorck, a Santa Clarita resident. “I feel comfortable. I feel safe.”

In Santa Clarita, the reduction was sharpest for theft, which dropped from 977 incidents to 839. Overall, crimes against property fell from 1,575 to 1,504 and incidents of violent crime declined from 367 to 361.

There were half as many homicides--just one--as in the same period last year. Reported rapes dropped to six, fewer than half as many as were reported previously. Aggravated assaults, car thefts and thefts were down slightly, and burglaries and robberies were up, the statistics show. In addition, there was a sharp increase in arson incidents, from nine during the first six months of 1991 to 21 this year.

As Santa Clarita’s crime rate fell, however, residents in adjacent Ventura County saw increases in many crimes.

Jolted by surges in robbery, assault and theft, Ventura County’s three largest cities experienced crime increases during the first half of 1992, the FBI reported.

During the six-month reporting period, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley lost their places as the nation’s two safest cities with more than 100,000 residents

Serious crime jumped 10% in Oxnard, 7.3% in Simi Valley and 3.3% in Thousand Oaks for the six months, even as crime fell 2% nationwide, the report said.

Though Ventura County is still one of the safest urban counties in the West, the new report indicates that it is headed for a crime increase for the third straight year. By contrast, crime fell throughout the county during the 1980s.