Thousand Oaks Regains Spot as Safest Big City

Thousand Oaks was the most crime-free large city in the U.S. last year, placing a Ventura County community atop the nation’s list of safe cities for the fifth time in seven years, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

Simi Valley, which ranked first three years ago, was third in 1995 among America’s 10 safest cities with populations of at least 100,000.

The Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita ranked fifth, while four Orange County cities were among the top 10.

California cities, in fact, grabbed nine of the top 10 places nationwide after two suburban Detroit communities that regularly place in the top 10 filed incomplete information for the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reports.

The rankings are based on a ratio of city population to crime reported in eight categories--murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

In displacing Amherst Town, N.Y.--a college community in suburban Buffalo--Thousand Oaks’ serious crime fell 5.5% in 1995 because of uniformed citizen patrols, the early arrest of drug users and a crackdown on the leaders of emerging youth gangs, police said.

“This distinction does not come easily,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Andy Fox said. “It’s not something that comes by circumstance or accident. We spend about $10 million a year out of a $30-million general fund on law enforcement.”

After ranking as the safest large city nationally from 1989 to ‘91, Thousand Oaks was eclipsed by Amherst Town or Simi Valley for the next three years. All three cities are similarly affluent and suburban.

Thousand Oaks has now cut serious violent and property crime by 15.4%, about 500 offenses, over the last two years to achieve its lowest crime rate since at least 1971.

The city reported only 2,772 serious crimes last year, or 25.0 for every 1,000 residents, because of sharp drops in felony assaults, burglaries and theft.

The improvement comes with the advent of storefront police stations, new neighborhood and business watch programs, and a novel program that has put 50 regular citizens in uniforms and patrol cars to act as eyes and ears for sworn police.

“We’ve been working very hard on our Volunteers in Policing program,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who acts as the Thousand Oaks police chief. “And we had a good drop in violent gang assaults. We intervene so disputes don’t escalate, and we’ve definitely targeted the gang leaders and kept the pressure on them.”

Simi Valley, which each year vies with Thousand Oaks for low-crime bragging rights, also had a sharp drop in crime, from 3,153 incidents to 2,958. Even the city’s violent offenses--already lower than in Thousand Oaks and among the lowest in the nation--declined slightly, from 218 to 211.

But in a year of mixed results, Simi Valley experienced an increase in murders, rapes and robberies. Its four homicides--including the fatal shooting of a police officer--were the most in recent history.

Simi Valley’s serious assaults dropped from 169 to 123, thanks partly to an expanded seven-officer special enforcement unit that targets youth gangs and special problems such as serial thieves.

“We’re very pleased as long as Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks collectively are going in the right direction,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said. “Obviously, crime in Thousand Oaks can flow over to Simi Valley as well. Some guy who gets successful there might decide to come here, too.”

Simi Valley’s theft totals were off substantially because of the arrest of several Los Angeles County thieves who dropped off the freeway to break into cars and burglarize homes, Stratton said. Auto thefts dropped from 418 to 327 in one year, as well.

“We had an influx from the Valley, and it takes some time to figure out what they’re looking for and how to take care of them,” Stratton said. “We did a big push on car burglaries and brought them down. It just takes manpower to catch a few guys doing a lot of burglaries.”

Oxnard, Ventura County’s largest city and one of its poorest, reduced offenses for the third straight year and its crime rate is now below that of the state and nation at 50.4 per 1,000 residents.

Overall, Ventura County had a crime rate of 35.1 per 1,000 residents last year, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s.

A LESS VIOLENT U.S.

Violent crimes of all kinds fell 4% nationally, the FBI reports. A1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

America’s 10 Safest Cities

The lowest crime rates for cities with populations of 100,000 or more:

*--*

Crimes per City Population 1,000 residents* Thousand Oaks 110,981 25.0 Amherst Town, N.Y. 107,238 26.9 Simi Valley 106,949 27.7 Sunnyvale 119,584 31.7 Santa Clarita 123,676 31.9 Irvine 125,624 37.7 Rancho Cucamonga 114,799 42.4 Orange 116,785 42.6 Huntington Beach 189,220 42.9 Glendale 178,481 44.8

*--*

*Statistics reflect eight categories of violent and property crime. Populations are for 1994.

Note: Livonia and Sterling Heights, Mich.--two of the nation’s safest cities historically--did not qualify in 1995 because of incomplete data.

Source: FBI and U.S. Census Bureau