Oxnard Crime Rises Again in 2003

After a decade of decline, reported crime in Oxnard inched upward for the second straight year in 2003 as homicides reached their highest level since 1979 due to a flurry of fatal attacks by youth gangs and prison parolees, authorities said.

Overall, major crime was up 158 incidents from the previous year to 5,571, compared with 10,057 at the city’s peak in 1992.

But Oxnard’s 2.9% crime increase, including hikes of 6.8% in burglary and 4% in theft, follows a decade in which major offenses were cut nearly in half and the crime rate plummeted from 67 offenses per 1,000 residents to just over 30.

Indeed, despite last year’s surge in homicides, a population increase resulted in a crime rate nearly as low as the previous year’s.

A crime rate is a ratio of population to crimes reported by local police to the FBI in eight categories -- homicide, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

Although Oxnard’s crime rate is among the highest in low-crime Ventura County, it is one of the lowest in the nation for a city of its size and well below state and national averages. Oxnard is the county’s largest city, with about 182,000 residents.

Police Chief Art Lopez said city streets were generally safer last year than in 2002 because a special task force helped cut felony assaults sharply and led to a reduction in violent crime of nearly 5%.

“Obviously, we’re pleased that violent crime went down; that’s telltale for us,” Lopez said. “We worked real hard all last year to have an impact on gang assaults, and those were down 37%.”

Yet the city’s 22 homicides, nearly as many as in the previous three years combined and five fewer than the record number in 1979, overshadowed such progress. Lopez attributed seven of the killings to street gangs and four or five more to prison parolees. None of the killings thought to involve parolees has been solved. “With the prison guys, it’s very difficult,” he said.

Parolee violence touched several Ventura County communities last year, police chiefs said, as homicides more than doubled to 49 countywide, including five by police officers.

A contributing factor in Oxnard, Lopez said, was that state parole officials closed the Santa Barbara parole office to save money, and last year routed hundreds of that county’s parolees to an office in central Oxnard.

“Absolutely, it bothers me,” Lopez said. “We complained to the highest echelon of state parole.... We have 700 of our own parolees. And we know that they thrive in getting involved in crime.”

Another thing that led to more killing in Oxnard, Lopez said, was that gang members changed tactics.

Last year, on several occasions, gunmen walked into parties of rivals and opened fire, instead of resorting to more traditional, less accurate drive-by shootings.

Lopez said he wasn’t minimizing the loss of life, but he said the typical resident was not any more likely to be killed last year than usual.

He said the assailants and their victims “were often parolees, drug dealers or someone involved in gangs.”

“Last year was an aberration,” he said. “The stars all got in a line.”

But after a homicide earlier this week, Oxnard is on a similar pace this year, with two homicides already.

Police are also convinced that street gangs are involved in an increasing number of robberies -- perhaps 25% of the 352 last year. “We see more than just a little connection,” Lopez said.

A primary Police Department focus this year will continue to be curbing street crime, Lopez said.

Of the roughly 2,500 gang members and associates that Oxnard police have identified, the 40 to 50 most violent are being tracked by a seven-person violence suppression unit that performs surveillance and investigates in a variety of ways, he said. Under a $500,000, three-year grant, the Police Department is able to pull a county prosecutor and probation officer into the process, he said.

A second major goal is to reduce property crime, which increased by about 200 offenses last year, Lopez said. To have an effect, department commanders, beat coordinators and detectives meet every two weeks to develop strategies.

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Oxnard crime statistics

The number of criminal offenses reported in Oxnard inched upward for the second year in a row in 2003, but the crime rate is down from a peak of 67 offenses per 1,000 residents 12 years ago to 30.6 last year.

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*--* Felony Auto Total Year Homici Rape Robbery assault Burgla Theft theft Arson offens de ry es 1992 14 75 569 965 2,134 5,144 1,109 47 10,057

1999 5 37 357 452 1,029 3,461 455 30 5,826

2000 9 60 375 422 921 3,417 455 41 5,700

2001 6 38 393 374 917 3,065 459 48 5,300

2002 10 35 353 449 913 3,034 578 41 5,413

2003 22 37 352 397 975 3,156 588 44 5,571

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Source: Oxnard Police Department

Los Angeles Times