Crime in County Continues Dropping in ’97

Crime in Ventura County’s largest cities continued to decline during the first half of 1997, according to midyear statistics released by the California Department of Justice.

The modest declines in the cities of Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura mirrored a statewide drop of about 8% when compared to the same period last year. Simi Valley, which in 1996 was the safest city in the nation with a population over 100,000, had little change in its crime rate.

The drop in crime follows a long-term downward trend, reflecting state and national declines. And the statistics for the first half of the year are even more encouraging, officials said, considering that last year Ventura County recorded its lowest crime rates in more than 25 years.

But the figures released Thursday included some reporting mistakes, officials said.

Not included in the data were the homicides of Nabela Salman and her three sons who were shot and killed in Simi Valley by Salman’s husband May 27. Nor did the data include the slaying of Monica Lynne Leech who was killed during a bank robbery in Thousand Oaks. The midyear report also had the wrong figure for the number of aggravated assaults in Oxnard.

“These numbers are preliminary and may need to be corrected,” said Michael Van Winkle, a state Department of Justice spokesman.

But Van Winkle said the midyear statistics for the 70 largest cities in California provided a good snapshot of crime across the state.

The department releases reports three times a year, one recording the first six months, another the first nine months of the year and the last being the year-end report.

In Ventura County, the declines in overall crime were helped by significant drops in the number of auto thefts.

Ventura had a 40% drop in auto thefts, while Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks each reported a decline of more than 30%. Oxnard had an 8% drop.

Most agencies attributed the steep declines to better coordinated enforcement among agencies and more aggressive prosecution by the district attorney’s office.

“The D.A.’s program has a lot to do with it,” said Tom Cady, Oxnard’s assistant chief of police. “And then there is enhanced community patrols, which are highly visible and can deter those kinds of crimes.”

Cady said the midyear statistics also showed an encouraging decline in the number of Oxnard homicides, which fell from 11 in the first half of 1996 to just three in 1997, and the decline in the number of aggravated assaults.

Using gang sweeps and a heavy police presence after youth violence--especially when it is gang-related--can help reduce the likelihood of retaliation, authorities said.

“I think good follow-up responses to youth violence and gang activity can go a long way to reducing the overall numbers,” Cady said.

Crime analyst Lynne Thayer, who works in Thousand Oaks for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, said her department found a number of reasons for the declines.

“Better prosecution for car theft, for one,” Thayer said. “We found that community involvement has also played a role.”

In Thousand Oaks last year, gang-related crime accounted for 15% of all violent crime in the city, Thayer said. Violent crime in the city is down for the first half of 1997, according to officials with the department’s special enforcement division, simply because many of the hard-core gang members in the city are in custody.

* STATEWIDE FIGURES

Attorney general trumpets reduction. A3