Moorpark Crime Rate Fell in 1993 : Statistics: City had 19.15 serious incidents for every 1,000 residents. But officials warn residents against complacency.

Moorpark, the safest city in Ventura County in 1992, got even safer last year, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Statistics show that only 19.15 serious crimes--ranging from arson to auto theft to murder--occurred for each 1,000 Moorpark residents in 1993, down from 20.93 the previous year.

“We continue to show that Moorpark is a fairly safe place to live,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Geoff Dean, who heads up Moorpark enforcement. “But we need to encourage people not to become complacent and help us help them in maintaining a safe environment.”

And while most categories of crime were down in Moorpark in 1993, there were some areas of concern, officials said.

Residential burglaries jumped from 97 in 1992 to 111 last year, and the number of aggravated assaults increased from 42 to 50, according to the report.

Dean said five of the assaults were cases of spousal battery, 11 involved battery on a child and 10 were directed at sheriff’s deputies.

“Some of these, while very unfortunate, are not necessarily preventable crimes,” he said.

Dean also estimated that 40% of the residential burglaries involved unsecured homes in which garage doors were left open or other doors and windows left unlocked. “We surely don’t want people to get complacent,” he said. “One of the battles we face is people getting complacent.”

Largely because of the jump in assaults, violent crime was up 11.3% in Moorpark in 1993, while property crimes fell 10.8% and crime overall dropped 8.5% from the previous year.

But because of the relatively few crimes overall in the city, Dean said the value of such percentages is dubious.

“The percentages are difficult because we’re dealing with such small numbers,” he said.

An illustration, Dean said, is in the case of rape, which the report shows declining by 25% from 1992 because the total number of reported rapes fell from 4 to 3.

Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason said he was encouraged by the report.

“This looks like a continuation of the results of excellent police coverage and work on the part of the Police Department,” Lawrason said. “I’m very pleased with it.”

The city has made law enforcement overall a priority by allocating more than half of its general fund dollars to its contract with the Sheriff’s Department.

In 1993, the city spent $2.4 million on law enforcement, 62% of all general fund allocations, said Richard Hare, deputy city manager. The city spent $2.2 million on law enforcement in 1992, a 61% allocation, he said.

Another bright spot contained in the report, officials said, was the declining criminal activity of the city’s 48 residents identified as hard-core gang members, largely due to increased enforcement.

While deputies listed 836 “contacts” with gang members in 1993--up from 509 the previous year--gang-related incidents dropped from 193 in 1992 to just 80 last year. Also, the number of times that gang members violated conditions of their parole fell from 205 in 1992 to 115 last year.

“We’re aggressively looking to reduce that problem,” Lawrason said. “Maybe we’ve benefited by the experiences of other cities and decided we were going to emphasize the control of gang activity. . . . We’ve made that a priority and, consequently, it seems to be successful.”

Deputies have also been more vigilant in inspecting big-rig trucks winding their way through the city, issuing fewer citations than in 1992 but taking many more vehicles out of service. Citations are issued when minor mechanical problems are discovered, but when trucks pose more serious hazards, they are immediately taken out of service until repairs are made.

While 112 spot inspections were conducted in 1993--up from 93 the previous year--the number of citations issued fell from 489 to 438, while the number of trucks taken out of service jumped from 38 in 1992 to 67 last year. So, Dean said, deputies were finding fewer problems overall, but more serious problems individually.

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Lawrason expressed alarm at the increasing number of unsafe trucks driving on city streets and stressed the need for continued enforcement.

“That’s frightening,” he said, referring to the number of trucks taken out of service. “When you stop to think about it, the causes for taking a truck out of service a lot of times involve bad brakes and other safety items.”

In all, deputies responded to 7,878 calls for service in 1993, a 4% increase over the previous year. Arrests jumped slightly from 1,218 in 1992 to 1,275 last year.

Dean said the fact that deputies were busier last year gave them less time for routine traffic enforcement. Perhaps as a result, there were slight increases in the number of traffic accidents and injury accidents in the city. In all, there were 220 accidents last year compared with 210 in 1992, and 90 accidents involved injuries, as opposed to 70 the previous year.

The total number of people injured in all accidents fell from 111 in 1992 to 100 last year.

Crime in Moorpark

‘92 ’93 Homicide 1 1 Rape 4 3 Robbery 11 12 Aggravated assault 42 50 Burglary 245 208 Theft 191 193 Auto theft 52 44 Arson 9 8 Totals 555 519

Source: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department