Property Not so Safe in ‘Safe’ Thousand Oaks

While felony violence continued its decline in Thousand Oaks last year, the leafy suburban city was jolted in 2002 by window-smashing thieves who swiped credit cards from cars at fitness clubs and filched computer equipment from desktops at small businesses.

Overall, reports of serious crimes in Ventura County’s wealthiest city jumped 7.8%, or 149 incidents, as thefts from vehicles soared 34% and business burglaries jumped nearly 28%. Auto thefts, grand thefts, arson and home burglaries were also up.

“Property crime is where we had our problems,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Keith Parks, who acts as police chief in Thousand Oaks. “But our violent crimes went down almost 8%.”

It was that kind of mixed bag across Ventura County among the seven cities that have released their annual crime reports so far for 2002.

In the five cities and unincorporated areas patrolled by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department -- Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Moorpark, Fillmore and Ojai -- both violent and property offenses were up slightly from 2001, the sheriff reported Friday.

Crime was also up slightly in Simi Valley and Oxnard.

Sharp crime increases were state and national trends last year, preliminary reports indicate.

In 121,000-resident Thousand Oaks, a community ranked second-safest among the nation’s large cities behind neighboring Simi Valley, police reported an increase in serious crime from 1,906 to 2,055. It’s the city’s highest total in years, but still far below a peak of 3,454 in 1991.

The city’s crime rate now stands at about 17 offenses per 1,000 residents, up from 16.15 in 2001 but far off a high of 33.1 in 1991.

The crime rate is a ratio of population to crimes reported by local police agencies to the FBI in eight categories -- homicide, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson. Each crime is given the same weight, so a homicide counts no more than a bike theft.

Although it is the county’s second largest city, Thousand Oaks has a crime rate well below the county average overall and less than half of that of California and the U.S.

“Crime has gone up, but it was so low in 2001 it was almost an aberration,” Parks said. “We may have bottomed out, and Ventura County may have bottomed out, in 2001. Now we’re back to where we were in 2000.”

The city can thank sneak thieves for that.

In one year, vehicle burglaries were up to 298, from 222.

“We put a number of people in jail for that,” Parks said. “What we found is that we have quite a number of methamphetamine addicts who [staked out] our fitness clubs looking for credit cards. They’d simply break a window and reach into the car. People were leaving their wallets when they went into the clubs.”

It’s the same story, with a twist, from the previous year, when a Los Angeles resident, later caught and convicted, repeatedly broke into fitness club lockers and stole credit cards.

Office burglaries also skyrocketed last year, climbing by 50 to 229.

“The targets are small to medium-sized businesses that are losing computers and faxes and office equipment,” Parks said. “But they’re so disparate in every other way. They’re not your typical [targets] along roadsides, where we can tell the businesses to turn on their lights at night.”

Thieves pull alarm wires to disengage the siren or horn, and by the time the alarm system companies call police and they respond, the crooks are often gone, he said.

“Once we get a call, we’re there in a minute or two,” Parks said.

Lesser crimes, those not reported by the FBI, also increased sharply last year in Thousand Oaks, to 7,190, from 6,490.

“Our patrol deputies have become a little more proactive and experienced, and they’re making more observations leading to arrest,” Parks said.

For instance, traffic arrests were up 213 and narcotics violations increased by 147.

“One of our biggie trends of the year was misdemeanor vandalism,” Parks said. “We had some residential neighborhoods where it seemed to be sport to drive around and shoot out windows of parked cars with BB or pellet-type guns. This is an incredible annoyance to people.”

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Crime statistics

Thousand Oaks’ crime is down from a peak of 33.1 offenses per 1,000 residents 12 years ago to about 17 in 2002.

*--* Year Homi- Rape Rob- Felony Burg- Theft Auto Arson Total cide bery assault lary theft crimes 1991 1 19 78 261 982 1,725 333 55 3,454 1999 2 9 39 104 366 1,183 129 18 1,850 2000 3 22 37 115 326 1,286 146 24 1,959 2001 1 10 33 128 309 1,277 128 20 1,906 2002 0 19 35 105 673 1,359 149 24 2,055

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Source: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department