Sheriff’s Report Shows Camarillo Spree Raised Crime Rate 7.7%

Fueled by a theft spree in Camarillo, crime in the five cities and unincorporated areas patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department increased 7.7% last year.

Reported crime was up slightly in Moorpark, Ojai and Fillmore and dropped sharply in Thousand Oaks. But a 42.8% surge in serious offenses in Camarillo produced the first overall increase in the sheriff’s jurisdiction since 1991.

The 7,857 violent and property crimes are 565 more than in 1994.

“Our crime rate is so low it doesn’t take much to make a major glitch,” Undersheriff Richard Bryce said. “Last year was a 22-year low. And we’re still below two years ago. So it’s kind of like a correction in the market. It’s a concern, but it’s not alarming.”

What is alarming, he said, is that 89% of the net overall increase came from Camarillo.

“Those numbers are so staggering you can’t just write them off,” he said. “They’ve got to be dealt with, and we will.”

Camarillo’s serious crime jumped by 503 incidents to 1,679 last year, including increases of 21% in violent crime--murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault--and 45% in theft, burglary and arson.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Ray Abbott, who serves as Camarillo’s police chief, said most of the additional burglaries and thefts occurred at large apartment complexes, including four just west of City Hall.

“It was like on Jan. 1 somebody turned on the faucet and it didn’t stop all year,” Abbott said. “We’d target some individuals we thought were involved. And a couple of times we’d say, ‘We’re glad we got these guys in custody, maybe our vehicle burglaries will drop off.’ And they would for a couple of days. Then, bam, they’d start up again. It was a tough year.”

So far this year, crime in Camarillo is down between 20% and 25%, Abbott said, with a special enforcement unit and citizen patrols working hard to protect the apartment complexes.

Camarillo’s crime rate of 27.8 per 1,000 residents is still among the lowest of all cities in California, regardless of size. The countywide crime rate is 35.1 crimes per 1,000 residents and the most recent statewide rate was about 62 per 1,000.

Crime in Camarillo still has not reached the high levels of 1991, when a pair of Los Angeles County thieves turned off the Ventura Freeway to commit hundreds of car burglaries and thefts. Total crimes fell by almost 500 the next year after the crooks were arrested.

Abbott said out-of-town crooks still make up about half of the adults arrested in Camarillo and 20% of the juveniles.

“We’ve seen some Central American and Vietnamese gangs from L.A. County,” he said. “They look at this as being more fertile ground. People are more relaxed here. They don’t lock their doors, and they leave their garage doors open. There are a lot of easy targets.”

Despite the overall increase in the sheriff’s jurisdiction, the violent crime rate dropped for the fourth straight year in 1995. It was off 1.7%, thanks largely to a 16% reduction in Thousand Oaks, which reported its lowest overall crime rate since at least 1971.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who acts as the Thousand Oaks police chief, said that most of the drop from 299 acts of violence to 250 came as serious assaults abated. That statistic closely correlates with the level of youth gang activity, she said. And last year it reflected a citywide crackdown on gangs.

“This city has placed a priority on having a full-time gang unit, and not one that goes in and out as things get hot,” Kemp said.

Arrests by the eight-officer Thousand Oaks gang unit alone jumped from 90 to nearly 160 last year, she said. Citywide, juvenile arrests increased 30% to 751.

“I can tell you that a lot of arrests were targeted and they were gang leaders,” Kemp said. “When you arrest the gang leaders, the rest of them kind of wander around.”

Indeed, juvenile arrests were at an all-time high throughout the sheriff’s jurisdiction, up 18% in 1995. The arrests of youths for felonies were up even more sharply.

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Sheriff’s Crime Report

Crime in the five cities and unicorporated areas patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department increased 7.7% last year. Totals reflect eight categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.

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City 1994 1995 % change Camarillo 1.176 1,679 42.8 Fillmore 332 347 4.5 Moorpark 530 540 1.9 Ojai 298 319 7 Thousand Oaks 2,990 2,820 5.7 Unincorporated 1,966 2,152 9.5 County totals 7,292 7,857 7.7

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Source: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department