Crime in County Levels Off

Ventura County crime leveled off last year after nearly a decade of steep declines, partly due to a sharp increase in reported theft in Ventura, which replaced Oxnard as the county’s most crime-prone city.

Reported crime, already at levels not seen since the 1960s, fell for the ninth straight year in 2000, adding luster to the county’s reputation as the safest urban area in the West.

But the drop of seven incidents in a year was so minuscule it represented a reduction of just 0.04% in eight categories of serious crime that local jurisdictions report to the FBI. Violent offenses were exactly the same as in 1999, while property crimes were down by seven.

The tiny reduction produced a crime rate of 23.3 offenses per 1,000 residents, about half the county’s record high 10 years ago. Total offenses dropped to 17,537, down 43% in a decade, a Times analysis shows.

That means there were nearly 13,000 fewer crimes--including 1,400 fewer homicides, rapes, robberies and felony assaults--than in 1991, although 78,000 more people now live in the county.

Local data reflect a national trend. The FBI reported in December that drops in the nation’s crime rate had stalled during the first six months of 2000, following eight years of record-setting declines.

“We’ve expected this,” Sheriff Bob Brooks said. “The crime-prone population in their late teens and early 20s has been increasing for years, and crime trends almost always follow. So we know if we stop doing the things that are working, we can almost be assured crime will go the wrong direction.”

It did last year in Fillmore, Ventura and Thousand Oaks. Crime was stable in Simi Valley and Camarillo, and was down substantially in five other local cities.

The decline was most dramatic in the small cities of Ojai, Santa Paula and Moorpark, where drops ranged from 12% to 19% with big reductions in burglary and assault. Crime also continued to fall in Port Hueneme and Oxnard.

At the same time, Ventura reported the county’s largest crime surge--up 399 offenses in a year.

Nearly all of the increase came from a procedural change requiring police to follow FBI guidelines by documenting petty thefts when citizens first report them, instead of waiting for the return of follow-up paperwork.

Officials in Ventura, the only local city to have such a reporting delay, have acknowledged that the procedure--in place since 1995--had caused hundreds of crimes not to be reported each year. They have argued that police resources were better spent fighting crime than counting minor offenses. But they changed back to the usual reporting procedures in mid-June 2000.

“We know that we are capturing more crimes,” Police Chief Mike Tracy said earlier this year. “We are taking a report over the phone. Before, we sent a report form in the mail, and we didn’t get all of those back.”

The change helped push Ventura’s rate up to 33.9 crimes per 1,000 residents, compared with Oxnard’s 33.5, a countywide average of 23.3 and a county low of 10.5 in Moorpark. By comparison, California’s overall crime rate was about 38 crimes per 1,000 residents and the nation’s was nearly 43.

Ventura’s crime rate may be high for this county, Ventura Police Lt. Carl Handy said, but it is low compared with other cities of its size and is only about half of what it was a decade ago.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve been involved in an aggressive partnership with the community in fighting crime,” Handy said. “In spite of an increase in the last year, we’re making progress.”

Despite Ventura’s higher crime rate, the types of crimes committed there were often less violent than in Oxnard, which had 866 violent offenses last year compared with Ventura’s 351. No other local city had nearly as many as either city, although Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley are larger than Ventura. Indeed, Simi Valley, which ranks as the safest large city in America, had the lowest violent crime rate of any local city regardless of size.

Affluence and Economy Helped Keep Crime Low

For now, Ventura County--one of California’s richest--can still count the blessings of its affluence, good economy and involved citizens.

“There’s been a tremendous investment by citizens protecting their own communities,” Brooks said. “Youth programs are working on the preventive side. And we’ve been very effective in suppressing violent gang activity.”

Specifically, residents with cell phones and flashlights patrol several cities, volunteers staff police storefronts and community centers, and a special 15-officer, crime-suppression unit targets countywide problems such as gangs and drug dealing.

Police also cite tough two- and three-strike sentences for putting repeat criminals behind bars. They say they are targeting suspected criminals with long records.

That is happening in Santa Paula, where reported crime has dropped 53% since 1991, the steepest decline in the county. The city’s violent crime fell 37%, principally in felony assaults, last year alone.

“We’re arresting the right people and putting them in jail for a long time,” Police Chief Robert Gonzales said.

The same strategy helped staunch burglaries and thefts, he said. “The same kids were committing a large number of vehicle burglaries, and Officer Daryl Koranda figured out the pattern. He laid low [undercover] on a bicycle, and sure enough, the kids showed up.”

Perhaps as important, Gonzales said, is that citizens now call police more often to report suspicious behavior. Calls for service rose by 4,000 to 23,259 last year, even as crime dropped.

Moorpark’s 19% reduction was another case of good news on top of good news. After burglaries fell from 125 to 61, the city’s crime rate is among the lowest for small U.S. cities, ranking with hamlets in rural Pennsylvania. That is because of what Brooks said may be Ventura County’s strongest crew of citizen volunteers.

“They’re very, very involved and concerned out there,” the sheriff said. “They work in crime prevention and Neighborhood Watch to free up officers to do other things.”

Likewise, Ojai had just 28 burglaries last year, down from 45 the year before, and that led to a 12% overall drop.

Port Hueneme’s 11% drop is also attributed to a large decline in burglaries, and a similar reduction in felony assaults.

Neighboring Oxnard, the county’s largest city, continued a remarkable decade as crime dropped another 4% last year. That translates to a 43% decline since 1992, including a 48% reduction in serious violence. Oxnard accounted for 35% of county crime in 1992, but 32.5% in 2000.

Although homicides were up from five to nine, and rapes increased from 37 to 60, Oxnard crime overall fell by 235 to 5,703, mostly because burglaries and auto thefts were off. That compares with about 10,000 crimes nine years ago.

“We got there with a cooperative spirit between ourselves and our community, by reaching out to other law enforcement agencies and by using better technologies,” Assistant Police Chief Stan Myers said.

Oxnard has a large citizen patrol that takes to the streets when a problem is identified. And an aggressive anti-gang unit has limited youth wars that regularly flared a few years ago.

After a rash of gang-related shootings last fall, a calm has settled again.

“We’re talking about a series of homicides,” Myers said. “We tend to have them in cycles. That was just a high point of a cycle.”

In response, police are working with city churches to do more to offer teenagers options and keep the peace, he said.

While Oxnard violence ticked up, Camarillo experienced a 22% drop in violent offenses as felony assaults fell from 70 to 46. Still, incidents were up slightly overall because thefts increased 15%. Brooks said that was probably because of the city’s hugely popular premium outlet mall, since malls are often magnets for car burglaries and petty thefts.

“That brings a lot of nonresidents,” the sheriff said.

On the county’s east end, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks remained extraordinarily safe, despite a jump in reported rapes in Thousand Oaks.

Simi Valley Is Safest City of Its Size in Nation

Ranked the nation’s safest city with at least 100,000 residents, Simi Valley had virtually no change in crime--an uptick of six incidents that still resulted in a lower crime rate because of a rise in population.

Simi Valley reported 1,705 serious crimes last year, down from 3,556 at its peak in 1992. That is a 52% drop.

“Overall, we’re extremely pleased that we continue to have the lowest crime rate in the history of the city,” Police Chief Randy Adams said.

Simi Valley residents staff a volunteer program that could respond to a major emergency. Residents are also trained at a citizens academy, and some graduates work as volunteers at the Police Department.

That may one day lead to a citizens patrol, similar to those in Thousand Oaks, Ojai and Oxnard.

A gang task force also unifies police, probation officers, churches and youth service agencies.

Adams said he could not explain why Simi Valley robberies jumped from 24 to 45 last year.

“When you’re dealing with numbers that low, sometimes it’s the luck of the draw--just who might come to your city,” he said.

In Thousand Oaks, the crime stories of the year were a fatal shooting at a Conejo Creek condominium project by Salvadoran gang members from Van Nuys and the spate of 23 rapes of local women.

“The bulk were acquaintance-type rapes,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Keith Parks, who acts as police chief. “It wasn’t a serial rapist. And three were rapes from prior years.”

Those numbers, and a high-profile Mussel Shoals case involving the heir to the Max Factor fortune, led to community discussions about how to avoid date rape.

“We said if you go someplace, don’t leave your drinks laying around,” Parks said. “If you go to parties, be aware of your surroundings.”

The 23 rapes reported in Thousand Oaks last year were not a particularly high number, but they appear so when compared with a very low total of nine the previous year, statistics show.

In addition, home burglaries were down 20% in Thousand Oaks, as deputies caught several serial burglars, Parks said. At the same time, a thief who stole from cars at health clubs was caught in a stakeout.

“It was a good year,” Parks said.

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Ventura County Crime Statistics

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Felony Auto City/year Homicide Rape Robbery assault Burglary Theft theft CAMARILLO 1999 3 8 18 70 234 737 58 2000 0 11 20 46 188 848 46 FILLMORE 1999 0 0 10 37 56 139 9 2000 0 4 7 48 49 200 19 MOORPARK 1999 1 2 13 37 125 183 40 2000 0 3 8 39 61 184 31 OJAI 1999 0 3 1 21 45 150 2 2000 0 0 1 15 28 151 5 OXNARD 1999 5 37 357 452 1,029 3,461 567 2000 9 60 375 422 929 3,417 455 PORT HUENEME 1999 0 13 32 142 137 331 37 2000 1 7 29 90 91 355 42 SANTA PAULA 1999 1 9 41 115 295 329 77 2000 3 2 37 63 281 310 53 SIMI VALLEY 1999 0 11 24 81 383 987 161 2000 1 13 45 75 389 1,036 124 THOUSAND OAKS 1999 2 9 39 104 366 1,183 129 2000 3 23 37 115 326 1,287 146 VENTURA 1999 3 19 94 218 649 1,795 211 2000 4 21 93 233 650 2,185 212 COUNTYWIDE 1999 19 129 654 1,341 3,653 10,145 1,410 2000 25 160 664 1,294 3,323 10,680 1,241

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City/year Arson Total CAMARILLO 1999 19 1,147 2000 6 1,165 FILLMORE 1999 2 248 2000 6 324 MOORPARK 1999 6 407 2000 3 329 OJAI 1999 4 226 2000 0 200 OXNARD 1999 30 5,938 2000 36 5,703 PORT HUENEME 1999 1 693 2000 4 619 SANTA PAULA 1999 12 879 2000 8 757 SIMI VALLEY 1999 52 1,699 2000 22 1,705 THOUSAND OAKS 1999 18 1,850 2000 24 1,961 VENTURA 1999 33 3,022 2000 23 3,421 COUNTYWIDE 1999 193 17,544 2000 147 17,537

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Source: Sheriff’s Department; police departments in Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura; U.S. Census Bureau