Simi Valley Again Named Nation’s Safest Big City

Simi Valley was the safest large city in the United States in 1998, nudging local rival Thousand Oaks for the top spot, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

In this annual battle for bragging rights, the two east Ventura County commuter communities edged a college town in suburban Buffalo--Amherst Town, N.Y., FBI and census figures show.

Santa Clarita ranked fourth.

Between them, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks have ranked first among the nation’s cities with at least 100,000 residents eight of the last 11 years. Amherst Town was first the other three years.

Simi Valley regains the No. 1 spot after ranking second behind Thousand Oaks in 1997.

“It is a source of pride,” Simi Valley Mayor Bill Davis said. “To be No. 1 is great. And it’s not just the Police Department, it’s the public that gets involved.”

Nationwide, crime was down 7% last year from 1997, the FBI reported. By comparison, offenses were off 16.9% in Simi Valley and 9.7% in Thousand Oaks.

Both cities use the safe-city rankings not only for good-natured competition, but to lure big companies to town. And real estate agents banner the results in sales brochures.

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

For 1998, Simi Valley reported 16.7 crimes per 1,000 residents, while Thousand Oaks reported 17.6 offenses per 1,000. Amherst Town had a crime rate of 18.8.

None of the other 222 large cities in the U.S. approached that degree of safety.

California cities captured nine of the top 10 positions and 16 of the top 20. Only Amherst Town, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Provo, Utah; and Livonia, Mich., represented other states.

Ventura, included in the big-city comparisons for the first time, ranked 26th nationally, with a rate of 38.3 crimes per 1,000. Oxnard ranked 39th after reporting 42.2 crimes per 1,000.

Among all local cities, 28,000-resident Moorpark consistently ranks as the county’s safest, marginally ahead of Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

In Simi Valley, Davis said the reasons are obvious.

“I tell you, I could see why we’re No. 1 at 1:30 last night,” Davis said. “Officers came up my street, saw my neighbor’s garage door up and light on, and they knocked on the door. The guy’s wife came up to me this morning and said, ‘We do have the best Police Department in the state, don’t we?’ ”

Simi Valley has led the county in crime cuts over the last seven years. Remarkably, crime is off 48% in that well-kept, suburban city, down from a peak of 3,442 to 1,804.

“I love it,” Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams said. “Our crime rate is the lowest in the [28-year] history of this department.”

Beyond strong community support, Adams said his department refuses to tolerate any type of crime.

“Although we’re a growing city, we still respond to even the smallest crimes,” Adams said. “For example, we hold our gang members to the letter of the law. If they’re violating our 10 p.m. curfew, we cite them.”

Thousand Oaks’ plunging crime rate produced declines in almost every category.

Violent crime fell to its lowest level in 13 years in 1998, by using a full-time, eight-officer gang unit to make 112 gang-related arrests of 72 separate offenders last year, said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who acts as police chief.

The number of felony assaults, a common reflection of gang activity, fell from 133 to 95 last year, she said.

“We would have been down in every category except for a residential burglar, [Dennis] Spangler,” Kemp said. “He committed 35 burglaries. The good news is we caught him in June.”

Spangler ultimately pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary.

Thousand Oaks also saw a sharp decline in all types of theft. Auto thefts dropped from 204 to 153 after police held a series of community meetings to urge residents to be more vigilant.

In absolute numbers, Oxnard has led the way locally in cutting crime. That blue-collar city experienced 1,252 fewer serious crimes last year, cutting robberies from 518 to 393 and lopping 799 thefts off its 1997 total.

In Ventura, overall crime leveled off in 1998. Police believe a crackdown on gangs helped produce a drastic reduction in felony assaults, from 232 to 168.