Irvine Makes List of Safest Cities in U.S.

Irvine is one of the safest cities in the nation, ranking 10th among those with more than 100,000 residents, according to FBI crime statistics released Monday.

Six California cities ranked among the top 10 safest in the nation for 1992, but Irvine was the only one in Orange County. Huntington Beach ranked 12th.

“That’s excellent news, I’m very happy to hear that,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said. “Public safety is (our) No. 1 priority. We want to do whatever we can to solve the problem, or at least soften the impact of the problem.”

The annual FBI tally includes murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson in cities with more than 100,000 residents. Those crimes dropped 4% from 1991 to 1992, according to the FBI.

Irvine, which also had the lowest violent crime rate of all Orange County cities in 1991, posted a 1992 rate of about 45 crimes per 1,000 residents. By comparison, Los Angeles had a rate of about 99 violent crimes for every 1,000 people.

City officials attributed the low crime rate to a highly educated, well-trained and well-paid police force, active participation by residents and urban planning that separates residential enclaves from high-traffic streets.

Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck cited the city’s prevention services program, through which officers educate residents about crime-fighting tactics, and Operation Safe Campus, a monthly meeting of school and police officials, as key efforts in keeping the city safe. Mayor Ward also pointed to the city’s Safe Community Task Force, an anti-gang citizens group that has met weekly over the past several months.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm to help maintain the sense of community here, to help maintain the quality of life,” Brobeck said, noting that Irvine’s graffiti hot line was one of the first in Southern California and that the city is diligent in removing graffiti within 24 hours. “We are a safe community, the city has always prided itself on this.”

Three murders were recorded in Irvine last year, whereas none were in 1991, the FBI statistics say. The number of rapes decreased from 15 to 10 in 1992 and arson cases fell from 106 to 38. Assaults, however, increased from 55 to 83, according to the FBI. Robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft remained nearly the same from 1991 to 1992, the statistics show.

Brobeck and Ward both stressed that since Irvine is a totally pre-planned community, modern crime problems were taken into consideration during development. Because residential areas are separated from the main streets, Ward said, “it is very difficult to commit a crime in one of the villages and get out. So people think twice about committing that crime.”

The police chief said that “a lot of safeguards . . . went into assuring its aesthetics and assuring its residents a high quality of life. It’s a model city. It’s a city that is touted and is looked upon by a lot of other planners in the nation as the thing to do when you plan a city from scratch.”

Huntington Beach officials also were thrilled to hear news of their city’s low crime rate, particularly because state statistics released earlier this month that did not take into account population showed a large increase in actual crimes in Surf City over the past year.

“For a city our size, I think we’re doing really well,” Councilwoman Linda Moulton-Patterson said. “We’ve been real innovative with limited resources. The major thanks goes to just a terrific Police Department and citizens that really care.”

Huntington Beach Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg lauded his employees but also praised the city’s neighborhood watch program and other efforts by residents to combat crime.

“You can go out there and work as hard as you want, but if you don’t have the support of the community it’s not going to do anything,” Lowenberg said. “Folks that live and work and play in Huntington Beach have always been sensitive” to quality-of-life issues.

“People like to live in nice, clean neighborhoods,” the chief said. “People pay a lot of money for their property in Huntington Beach, and anything that threatens nice, clean neighborhoods is not tolerated.”

The safest large city in the nation last year was Amherst Town, N.Y., a Buffalo suburb with a population of about 112,000, and a crime rate of 30 major crimes per 1,000 residents.

Santa Clarita, in the northern part of Los Angeles County, ranked 3rd with a crime rate of 34, sandwiched between two Ventura County cities. Thousand Oaks, which had topped the FBI ranking for the past three years, fell to the No. 2 spot with a crime rate of 33, while neighboring Simi Valley, which had been No. 2 in 1990 and 1991, fell to fourth place with 35.

Also in the top 10 were two Bay Area cities: Fremont in Alameda County, with a crime rate of about 40, and Sunnyvale, in Santa Clara County, with a crime rate of about 42.

Times staff writer Mack Reed in Ventura County contributed to this story

Safe in Irvine

Irvine is Orange County’s safest large city, and 10th in the nation among cities with more than 100,000 residents, according to the FBI’s 1992 crime report. Crimes included are murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

Rate per City Population 1,000 residents Amherst Town, N.Y. 111,711 30.30 Thousand Oaks, Calif. 104,352 33.03 Santa Clarita, Calif. 110,642 34.11 Simi Valley, Calif. 100,217 35.39 Sterling Heights, Mich. 117,810 39.01 Fremont, Calif. 173,339 39.91 Sunnyvale, Calif. 117,229 41.58 Livonia, Mich. 104,814 43.00 Overland Park, Kan. 111,790 44.53 Irvine 110,330 45.19

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Rest of Orange County

Huntington Beach was the only other county city of more than 100,000 residents with a rate close to Irvine’s. Here is how the other six cities rated:

Rate per City Population 1,000 residents Huntington Beach 181,519 47.15 Orange 110,658 62.82 Garden Grove 143,050 70.45 Anaheim 266,406 70.74 Santa Ana 293,742 73.31 Fullerton 114,144 75.93

Sources: 1990 Census, FBI