Crime Rates Fall to Lowest Levels in 2 Decades : County: Statistics show a county dip for third year in a row that is attributed partly to police efforts to crack down on gangs and drugs.

Ventura County crime fell for the third straight year in 1994, reaching levels not seen for more than two decades and boosting the county’s status as the safest urban area in the West.

Final statistics show that serious crime was off 1.5% countywide last year thanks to sharp drops in Fillmore, Santa Paula, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks--and to Oxnard’s continued success with citizen patrols.

The county’s 26,433 crimes in 1994 were about 3,800 fewer than reported just three years before, when offenses reached an all-time high.

“In the three years since we drew a line in the sand and had to face up to our problems, we’ve found some things that work,” said Sheriff Larry Carpenter, whose agency patrols five local cities and the county’s unincorporated areas. “We’re going in the right direction.”

The recent crime-fighting strategies of most local police agencies have been similar--arrest more drug users to reduce theft, suppress gang violence through special units and persistent raids, and rally ordinary citizens to come to the defense of their own neighborhoods.

Police officials say the advent of aggressive, new citizen patrols--in Oxnard, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Thousand Oaks--has made a difference.

“They’re our eyes and ears,” said Oxnard Chief Harold Hurtt, who saw spotlight wielding citizen patrols spread from one neighborhood to 26 in two years as crime dropped 18%. “The patrols have served as a determined force against criminal activity.”

Police in Oxnard, Ventura and Fillmore have opened police storefronts to attack crime pockets head-on. The Sheriff’s Department also uses a mobile storefront mounted on a trailer in the west county, and a second will be deployed soon in Thousand Oaks.

But perhaps the greatest change of the last three years has been the police agencies’ decision to fight youth gangs collectively as a countywide task force, sharing intelligence and moving at a moment’s notice to raid gang members’ homes.

“We’re determined that what happened in L.A. County with gangs is not going to happen in Ventura County,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who acts as Thousand Oaks’ police chief. “When gang activity gets intense, our gang searches get intense.”

Crime’s three-year downward spiral is welcome relief to a county that was reeling in 1992, following a 17% surge over the two previous years.

While the crime increase of those frightening years touched every local community--regardless of poverty or wealth--the trend of the last three has been one of gain and moderation, police said.

Without exception, every local city has a lower crime rate today than it did in 1991.

But some officials note that those gains have come almost exclusively in crime categories that have little to do with personal safety, such as burglary and theft.

And, they say, Ventura County is still a more violent place today than it was just a few years ago. For example, the number of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults was up 1% countywide last year and 23% higher than in 1989.

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“That’s what I call the meanness factor,” Carpenter said. “In what used to be a simple car theft, drivers are now pulled out of their cars and often they’re kicked and stomped. It’s not a simple car theft anymore.”

Still, taken as a whole, the new crime statistics are encouraging, police said.

The county registered 26,433 crimes in 1994, down 409 from the previous year in the eight categories reported to the FBI for its annual report.

Homicides, rapes and robberies were all down sharply, but serious assaults were up slightly because of what police say is a dramatic increase in reports of domestic violence. And there was a small decrease in each category of property crime--burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

The new statistics show that Moorpark, the county’s richest city, maintained its position as the most crime-free community.

But Oxnard, traditionally the county’s most dangerous city, has been replaced by Port Hueneme, the small community Oxnard borders on three sides. In fact, after registering an 18% crime decrease the last two years, Oxnard has also been replaced by Ventura as the local city with the highest overall crime rate.

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Moorpark had a rate of only 19.5 crimes per 1,000 residents last year, while Ventura’s was nearly three times that.

The Moorpark and Ventura totals reflect the difference in crime rates between the new affluent communities of the suburban east county and the older cities of Santa Clara Valley and Oxnard Plain.

The east county, which has about 38% of the county’s population, had just 27% of its crime and only 17% of its violent offenses last year.

The west county’s crime rate was 44 offenses per 1,000 residents, compared to 26 per 1,000 in the east. Both areas fared well compared to the most recent statewide rate of about 65 per 1,000.

Of the three east county cities, crime was down 8.6% in Thousand Oaks, but rose 2.3% in Moorpark and 9.5% in Simi Valley.

Kemp said Thousand Oaks survived a flurry of gang violence in late 1993 and early 1994 and has seen such activity drop away.

“They were going after each other with baseball bats and drive-by shootings, and we responded very strongly to that (with raids). They have been relatively quiet since last summer.”

Narcotics arrests were also up 83% in Thousand Oaks, which took petty thieves off the street so they could not steal to support their habits, Kemp said.

Deputies were given special training in how to detect a drug user when that person is stopped for a traffic violation or questioned about other offenses, she said.

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In Simi Valley, Acting Chief Richard Wright said that last year’s crime totals appear high only when compared with those of 1993, when the city ranked as the safest of its size in the nation.

For example, burglaries increased by 42 in Simi Valley last year, to 653, but that compares to 760 burglaries in 1992.

“We look at the general trend, which is down,” Wright said. “In 1975 we had 1,249 burglaries, and half the population we do now. So you see what I mean.”

Wright said his force was also hampered by a new, balky computer system that did not help identify pockets of crime as they developed. The computer is working well now, he said.

In the west county, crime was down 4.5% in Oxnard, 9.5% in Camarillo, 11.7% in Santa Paula and 20% in Fillmore. It rose 1% in Ojai, 5% in Ventura and 26.7% in Port Hueneme, where violence surged by more than one-third.

Police Chief John Hopkins said he dreaded release of Port Hueneme’s 1994 statistics.

“I was afraid we’d see a large increase,” he said. “We were so low the year before.”

Burglaries and thefts were up sharply, but the largest increase was in violent crime.

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As with several cities that showed increases in aggravated assaults last year, Hopkins said Port Hueneme’s total was up mostly because of a near doubling of domestic violence cases.

For Oxnard, the county’s largest city and among its poorest, 1994 was one for good news. A two-year crime decline resulted in 1,764 fewer offenses than in 1992.

Chief Hurtt credited citizen patrols, two new police storefronts and a bigger budget with the success. The Oxnard department now has 170 officers, up 22 from three years ago.

“We’ve really needed that money to increase our efforts in dealing with gangs,” said Hurtt. He previously could deploy just four to six gang officers, but now assigns up to 19 to such problems.

The Sheriff’s Department has experienced similar gains thanks to a multimillion-dollar annual budget infusion from Proposition 172, the law enforcement initiative passed in 1992. The department now has 50 more patrol officers, a 20% gain, authorities said.

That point has not been lost on police in Ventura, where Capt. Randy Adams said the number of uniformed officers has dropped from 122 to 117 over the same period.

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“That has a dramatic impact,” Adams said.

Ventura, though still relatively low in violent crime for a city its size, is now saddled with its new designation as the local city with the most crime per capita. But Adams correctly maintains that Ventura’s crime rate has been about the same for a decade. It’s just that Oxnard’s has fallen dramatically.

Santa Paula, plagued with a high crime rate for decades, also showed substantial improvement in 1994. And Chief Walter Adair said narcotics arrests and gang crackdowns are responsible.

“People don’t burglarize your house to send their kids to college,” Adair said recently. “They are burglarizing to buy drugs.”

Camarillo had the lowest crime rate of all the west county cities, having used citizen patrols to continue to cut thefts and burglaries that skyrocketed in 1990 and 1991.

Officials said the city--along with the white-collar east county--had been hit in the early 1990s by Los Angeles County thieves who would sweep north on freeways, searching for late-model cars and unprotected homes and businesses.

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But those offenses have fallen away as quickly as they climbed. And Sheriff’s Cmdr. Ray Abbott, who oversees the Camarillo operations, said an increasingly vigilant citizenry is partly responsible.

“We have probably the oldest citizen patrol group in the county,” he said.

Founded in 1976 as a group of citizen-band enthusiasts, the patrol’s 20 members now deploy to hot spots in pairs--armed with walkie-talkies and trained in police surveillance.

With their help, Camarillo burglaries dropped form 264 to 184 last year.

The law enforcement story of 1994, however, may have occurred without notice in earthquake-shattered Fillmore, where crime was down by 20%.

“Everything, including crime, just came to a screeching halt around here as the community was regrouping and rebuilding,” said Lt. Richard Diaz, head of the Fillmore sheriff’s station.

But a more lasting development for the tiny city may have been the opening of a police storefront in an abandoned laundry that gangs had taken over in north Fillmore.

Since May, a bilingual officer has been assigned strictly to that building and its environs, his patrols limited to walking the beat or riding a bike around it.

“Since May 8, he’s had 4,000 people walk in requesting his services,” Diaz said of Officer Max Pina, a Fillmore resident. “Our crimes have gone down but our calls have gone up. People who didn’t used to come to the police are coming to the police.”

Just as important, Pina is flanked by a teacher and educational aides, and 35 children often show up after school to study instead of wandering the neighborhood, Diaz said.

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“I think this storefront is different from other storefronts,” he said, “because you can hear the people’s television sets, you can smell the food they’re cooking, you can hear just every-day family conversations.”

Classes are offered in birth control to young girls, in English to Spanish-speaking mothers and in alcohol-abuse to fathers, Diaz said.

“It’s not busting heads: It’s not any of that,” he said. “We’ve brought to them an element they haven’t seen in law enforcement before.”

County

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County Crime Trends, 1991-94

Crime Overall

* Context: County has one of the lowest crime rates in the U.S.

(Crimes per 100,000 residents)

1991: 43.7 1992: 42.7 1993: 38.3 1994: 37.3

Violent Crime

* Context: Port Hueneme’s rate was highest, but Oxnard’s share remained 43% of total.

(Crimes per 100,000 residents)

1991: 5.2 1992: 5.5 1993: 4.8 1994: 4.9

Property Crime

* Context: Fillmore, Santa Paula and Thousand Oaks all had large drops in 1994.

(Crimes per 100,000 residents)

1991: 38.4 1992: 37.2 1993: 33.5 1994: 32.4

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Ventura County Crime Report

Crimes per 1,000 residents, 1994

* Moorpark

Violent Crime: 2.1

Property Crime: 17.4

Total Crime: 19.5

* Camarillo

Violent Crime: 1.8

Property Crime: 19.0

Total Crime: 20.8

* Fillmore

Violent Crime: 3.7

Property Crime: 22.1

Total Crime: 25.8

* Thousand Oaks

Violent Crime: 2.7

Property Crime: 24.4

Total Crime: 27.1

* Simi Valley

Violent Crime: 2.1

Property Crime: 28.4

Total Crime: 30.5

* Ojai

Violent Crime: 4.0

Property Crime: 33.6

Total Crime: 37.6

* Port Hueneme

Violent Crime: 15.8

Property Crime: 29.9

Total Crime: 45.7

* Santa Paula

Violent Crime: 6.3

Property Crime: 46.2

Total Crime: 52.5

* Oxnard

Violent Crime: 10.0

Property Crime: 44.7

Total Crime: 54.7

* Ventura

Violent Crime: 4.4

Property Crime: 50.5

Total Crime: 54.9

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Ventura County Crime Statistics

Serious City Year Homicide Rape Robbery Assault Burglary Camarillo 1993 1 9 42 83 264 1994 0 10 25 66 184 Fillmore 1993 1 5 5 60 123 1994 0 2 5 41 110 Moorpark 1993 1 3 12 50 163 1994 2 5 13 38 140 Ojai 1993 1 0 11 15 84 1994 0 2 4 26 77 Oxnard 1993 19 55 464 908 1,615 1994 10 29 404 1,073 1,794 Port 1993 5 3 35 209 159 Hueneme 1994 2 6 40 298 217 Santa 1993 2 10 62 149 519 Paula 1994 3 9 43 113 307 Simi 1993 0 13 54 185 612 Valley 1994 1 9 40 171 653 Thousand 1993 3 23 67 229 657 Oaks 1994 1 19 64 215 511 Ventura 1993 9 29 139 218 1,272 1994 5 23 141 259 1,291 Unincorp. 1993 3 25 33 209 627 1994 6 15 68 190 554 Countywide 1993 45 175 924 2,315 6,095 1994 30 129 844 2,490 5,838

Ventura County Crime Statistics (Contd.)

Auto Crimes Per City Theft Theft Arson Total 1,000 People Camarillo 794 88 17 1,298 23.1 751 119 20 1,175 20.8 Fillmore 183 33 6 416 32.5 153 19 3 333 25.8 Moorpark 238 44 8 519 19.4 287 43 3 531 19.5 Ojai 160 19 5 295 37.6 162 22 5 298 37.6 Oxnard 4,425 1,148 56 8,690 58.2 3,924 1,015 51 8,300 54.7 Port 301 72 4 788 38.5 Hueneme 374 58 5 1,000 45.7 Santa 744 104 5 1,595 59.7 Paula 841 86 7 1,409 52.5 Simi 1,634 371 23 2,892 28.1 Valley 1,835 423 35 3,167 30.5 Thousand 1,904 334 55 3,272 30.0 Oaks 1,815 331 36 2,992 27.1 Ventura 2,979 366 57 5,069 52.8 3,137 431 40 5,327 54.9 Unincorp. 900 165 46 2,008 22.0 885 156 31 1,905 20.7 Countywide 14,262 2,744 282 26,842 38.4 14,164 2,703 235 26,433 37.3

Sources: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department; police departments in Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura.