6 O.C. Cities Among Safest in U.S.

Huntington Beach and Irvine placed among the nation’s 10 safest large cities last year, helping give California almost a clean sweep in the annual battle for bragging rights among cities.

Nine California cities made the top 10 list, while six Orange County communities ranked among the top 25, according to new FBI figures released Wednesday.

Irvine and Huntington Beach--perennial members of the elite group--placed seventh and eighth in the annual survey, which compares crime in cities with populations of at least 100,000.

Simi Valley nudged rival Thousand Oaks for the top spot; Santa Clarita and Glendale placed third and ninth, respectively.

As the nation’s recent drop in crime begins to plateau, Orange County’s large cities continued to show a healthy decline, with violent offenses falling 6% last year. All eight of the county’s big cities were among the 35 safest in the nation. Huntington Beach saw serious crime drop 7%, while Irvine enjoyed a 5% decline.

“We’re always excited, but we would like to be No. 1,” said Irvine spokeswoman Heather Morris. “Being a safe and secure community is a top, top priority for Irvine, and it’s a No. 1 concern for people who chose to move here.”

Irvine’s safe ranking comes despite a whopping 32% rise in violent offenses reported last year--propelled largely by a jump in assaults. Police attribute the increase to an uptick in bar brawls and have stepped up patrols to address the problem. Police officials said they have won more success focusing on property crime, reducing petty thefts by more than 10%.

Like most cities at the top of the list, Huntington Beach and Irvine are less densely populated than the nation’s major urban cores and have enjoyed economic good times recently.

“These are all suburban communities, and they don’t have much industrialization,” said Paul Jesilow, an associate professor at UC Irvine’s department of criminology, law and society. “If you look at the 10 most crime-ridden, you’ll probably see that none of them are suburbs.”

Planner William Fulton, author of books on California growth, said many of the suburban cities benefit from education and affluence--and that is by design.

“What is the median income of the safe towns?” Fulton said. “It’s high. If you zone out poor people then you’re going to have a safer city.”

Nationwide, crime remained stable last year, with violent offenses up 0.1% and property crime nearly unchanged.

White-Collar Cities Lead Way

In California, crime has also plateaued, but only after the rate bottomed at the lowest level in three decades. The state reported a crime rate of just 38 crimes per 1,000 residents in 1999, compared with a national average of nearly 43.

Leading the way are the white-collar communities that ring the state’s largest cities: Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Santa Clarita on the fringe of Los Angeles, and Sunnyvale and Daly City in the Bay Area. They had rates between 15 and 21 crimes per 1,000 residents. Irvine and Huntington Beach reported crime rates of 22 and 24 crimes per 1,000 residents.

The state’s largest cities have also experienced sharp drops in crime over the last decade. FBI data show that San Jose, San Diego, Anaheim, Long Beach and Santa Ana have remarkably low crime rates compared with other cities their size.

Santa Ana ranked 24th despite being the second most densely populated city in California. The city’s police chief, Paul Walters, said his department has helped spearhead efforts to spruce up neighborhoods once blighted with graffiti and abandoned cars.

Along with task forces aimed at stamping out gang-related violence, the effort has earned a notable drop in crime, Walters said. Homicides, for example, have dropped from 78 in 1993 to 17 last year, he said.

The safe-city 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.

Mission Viejo, which has 93,000 residents, would have been ranked as the second-safest big city in the nation, but fell short of the 100,000-population mark necessary to be considered a major municipality.

Some officials and experts warned against making too much of the rankings, however, noting that crime levels can be skewed by variations in the way residents report offenses and the way police departments record them.

Moreover, some faulted the rankings for giving the same weight to a larceny or car theft as they do to a violent offense such as a robbery or a homicide.

“You can’t count murder the same as grand theft,” said Fullerton Police Chief Patrick McKinley, whose city ranked 32nd in the nation and eighth in Orange County. “They are not the same. We feel Fullerton is very safe.”

In California, Fresno had the highest rate, 76.9 crimes per 1,000, followed by Berkeley, Stockton, Sacramento, San Bernardino and Oakland.

But most crime news is good these days. And not by accident.

“Anyone who suggests that there’s been some magic bullet that has brought these crime rates down is missing the mark,” USC’s Glassner said. “The factors involved range from increases in the size of police forces to an improvement in the economy. As a matter of demographics, there are fewer young males. And the U.S. has a high incarceration rate.”

Irvine has ranked among the nation’s safest large cities for the last nine years. But this year the top belonged to Simi Valley, which displaced Amherst Town, a college community in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., at the top for the first time in three years.

“It is certainly a source of pride,” Simi Valley Mayor Pro Tem Barbra Williamson said. “We’ve come to enjoy having this title. And we work hard to keep it. We spend a lot of money on the police department, and we get our residents involved as volunteers.”

In Los Angeles County’s safest large city, Santa Clarita officials credit community involvement and a range of anti-crime programs.

City councils have supported services such as an anti-gang task force, teen court, a human relations forum, neighborhood sheriff’s teams and bicycle patrols. Funds also support youth after-school programs, recreation and sports activities.

“This is a community that we feel is safe, we want to keep it that way,” Councilman Cameron Smyth said. “It is clearly a communitywide effort between the city, local law enforcement and the residents of Santa Clarita.”

All 8 of O.C.’s Large Cities Among 35 Safest

In low-crime Orange County, all eight large cities were among the 35 safest in the nation. Ranked in the top 10, Irvine saw serious crime drop by 5% and Huntington Beach had a 7% decline last year.

Like others on the list, the two cities are relatively sparsely populated and have enjoyed economic good times.

“These are all suburban communities, and they don’t have much industrialization,” said Paul Jesilow, an associate professor at UC Irvine’s Department of Criminology, Law and Society. “If you look at the 10 most crime-ridden, you’ll probably see that none of them are suburbs.”

Bucking that trend was Santa Ana’s relatively high placing at 24th, despite ranking as the second most densely populated city in California.

Jesilow credited the city’s efforts at building partnerships between neighborhood associations and the police in recent years.

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said his department has helped spearhead efforts to spruce up neighborhoods once blighted with graffiti and abandoned cars.

Along with task forces aimed at stamping out gang-related violence, the effort has earned a notable drop in crime, Walters said. Homicides, for example, have dropped from 78 in 1993 to just 17 last year, he said.

Likewise, Ventura County’s large cities all placed high on the safe-city list.

Times staff writers Jack Leonard, Thuy-Doan Le, Martha Willman and Carol Chambers contributed to this story.