Crime in Thousand Oaks Falls Again During 2001

Thousand Oaks’ campaign against crime took another step forward last year, as reported offenses dropped to the point where thieves broke into just one-third as many homes as they did a decade before and felony violence plummeted to a fraction of what it had been.

Year-to-year, 2001 was also a success, with major crimes falling 2.8%, or 55 incidents, as rapes declined 55% and residential burglaries dropped 23%, according to a new Sheriff’s Department report.

This trend, in a community already ranked second safest among the nation’s large cities, hits residents where they live, officials said.

“These numbers show an impact on the quality of life,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Keith Parks, who acts as the Thousand Oaks police chief.

“If people feel safe,” he said, “it affects how they react to people around them. They know it’s OK to go to the park in the evening, for their kids to ride their bikes down the street to a friend’s house or to walk to school in the morning.”

Overall, Thousand Oaks’ 4% reduction in violent crime and 2.4% drop in burglaries and thefts last year reflected countywide trends. In the five cities patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department--Camarillo, Moorpark, Fillmore, Ojai and Thousand Oaks--violent and property crimes dropped slightly.

In 119,000-resident Thousand Oaks, police reported 1,904 serious crimes in 2001, down from a peak of 3,430 in 1991. The city’s crime rate fell to 15.9 offenses per 1,000 residents last year, off from 32.2 a decade ago.

That crime rate will probably leave the white-collar city second to east county rival Simi Valley, which had a rate of 15.1 last year. Either Simi Valley or Thousand Oaks has ranked as safest among U.S. cities with at least 100,000 residents for nearly a decade.

Thousand Oaks’ low rate translated last year to 170 people robbed, raped or beaten, down from 390 when violent offenses peaked in 1992.

Indeed, felony violence dropped again last year compared with the year before: murders from three to one, rapes from 22 to 10 and robberies from 37 to 33. Only felony assaults increased, from 115 to 126.

There were far fewer rapes, Parks said, not because of any particular crime-fighting strategy, but because the number reported two years ago was double the norm.

“2000 was an aberration,” Parks said. “We’re back down to a typical rate.”

Young women may also have gotten the message, because of the spate of date or acquaintance rapes two years ago, that they should not drink heavily “unless they take with them a designated person to be sober,” Parks said.

Maybe the most impressive improvement in 2001 was for home burglaries, where a 23% decline from 169 incidents to 130 followed a 20% drop the year before.

“I think it’s just cyclical,” Parks said. “A couple of years ago we may have had a situation where young teens were committing the crimes, and they just grew out of it, or they were arrested and put away. With numbers this low, one person can have a major impact.”

Improvement may have also come because the Thousand Oaks City Council added a third officer to the crime prevention unit last year, Parks said.

“We’re spending quite a bit of time working with homeowners and local businesses,” he said. “We’ve started a home security survey, and we’re training volunteers to go into people’s homes to tell them what they can do to harden the target.”

The Thousand Oaks department, with 100 officers, also has 60 community volunteers who work at least two shifts a month at the resource center, in patrol cars or in the new burglary prevention unit.

Deputies are also warning businesses to be alert for a trend that escalated last year--so-called “identity theft,” in which a criminal uses a stolen credit card to commit theft.

Such fraud nearly doubled from 128 offenses to 226 last year, Parks said.

“We had a situation here at some of the fitness clubs, where somebody would break into the valuables locker and take credit cards, and slip in somebody else’s,” Parks said. “The victims wouldn’t notice until they tried to use the cards.”

A thief from Los Angeles, who had been forwarding card numbers to accomplices in the East, was finally identified in December, Parks said.

Thousand Oaks’ slight drop is good news, but it only reflects the safety level of eastern Ventura County, Parks said.

“The region as a whole continues to be safer,” he said. “That’s driven by people who live here. They’re not afraid to call the police.”

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