2 East County Cities Ranked Safest in U. S.

Thousand Oaks was the nation’s safest city of more than 100,000 in 1997, marking the third consecutive year a Ventura County community topped the list, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

Simi Valley, the nation’s most crime-free city in 1996, was a close second in 1997. In seven of the last 10 years, either Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley has ranked as the nation’s safest city.

The Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita ranked third. Affluent California suburbs accounted for eight of the nation’s 10 safest large cities. The other California cities on the list are Sunnyvale, Irvine, Orange, Glendale and Huntington Beach.

The rankings are determined by comparing the number of serious crimes in each city with its population. Crimes tracked are murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

In unseating neighboring Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks saw serious crime drop 15% from the previous year. Violent crime, which is included in the serious crime numbers, dropped 26%.

The FBI’s annual crime report fuels the friendly rivalry between Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley for low-crime bragging rights. Both white collar, east county communities use the rankings to lure big companies, and real estate agents entice home buyers with the reports.

“To be No. 1 is important,” said Thousand Oaks Mayor Mike Markey, a former Compton police detective. “The fact is, we’re a safe place to raise families and do business.

“I’m glad Simi is right there,” Markey added. “But I’m glad we’re in front of them. We always double-check when we’re not first.”

Falling local crime rates mirror the nationwide decrease that has coincided with an improving economy. Across the U.S., serious crime dropped 4% in 1997, the sixth consecutive annual decrease, according to the FBI.

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In Simi Valley, serious crime was down 11%. Civic leaders there, like their counterparts in Thousand Oaks, credited aggressive citizen patrols and strong political support for law enforcement. The city spends about $15 million each year for police and is considering spending $2 million for computers in patrol cars to help officers more quickly access criminal histories.

“Our community really takes a zero-tolerance approach to crime,” Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams said. “They call us whenever they see any suspicious activity, and that’s helpful to us.”

Even so, violent crimes in Simi Valley increased slightly, from 156 to 183. Those included five killings, four of which occurred last May when a debt-ridden man named Ahmad Salman fatally shot his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself.

“We had that tragic incident where we lost four people all at once,” Adams said. “It’s pretty hard to predict when something like that’s going happen.”

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The preponderance of Southern California communities on the list might surprise people outside the state, said David M. Heer, director of the Population Research Laboratory at USC.

The city of Los Angeles had about 59 serious crimes for every 1,000 people last year--approximately three times the rate in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

But the safe-city rankings show that Southern California also is made up of wealthy, relatively crime-free suburbs, Heer said.

“Our stereotype is places like Compton and Inglewood, but obviously they’re not the only cities,” he said. “I’m certainly not surprised Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley have low crime rates. Those are high-economic-status suburbs. Basically, these are all middle-class or upper-class populations.”

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In Oxnard, where officials have also placed a strong emphasis on neighborhood patrols and police storefronts, serious crime dropped about 4%. There were five homicides, compared to 16 in 1996.

The other two cities in the top 10 were Amherst Town, N.Y., and Livonia, Mich. The crime statistics are compared against the latest U.S. census population estimates.

FBI officials do not include the city of Ventura in the rankings because they do not recognize recent estimates showing a population exceeding 100,000. The listing does not include smaller cities.

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America’s 10 Safest Cities

These are 1997’s safest communities with populations greater than 100,000, based on a preliminary FBI report on serious crimes and 1996 Census Bureau population estimates.

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Crimes per City Population 1,000 residents Thousand Oaks 113,368 19.7 Simi Valley 106,974 20.3 Santa Clarita 125,153 23.6 Amherst Town, N.Y.* 107,331 24.2 Sunnyvale 125,156 25.8 Irvine 127,873 29.1 Orange 119,890 29.5 Glendale 184,321 31.8 Livonia, Mich.* 105,099 33.0 Huntington Beach 190,751 33.9

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* Arson statistics were not included.

Source: FBI and U.S. Census Bureau