Ojai Valley crime rate levels off
by Lenny Roberts

After years of steady decline, reported crimes in the unincorporated areas of the Ojai Valley have leveled off, showing an overall decline of just 1.4 percent in 2001.
The unincorporated area also includes a stretch of North Ventura Avenue east of the Ojai Freeway from Casitas Springs to the Ventura city limits.
The number of Part I violent and property crimes reported outside the city in areas patrolled by Ojai-based deputies showed a slight increase from 283 in 2000 to 289 last year, according to Ventura County Sheriff's Department statistics released this week.
Part I violent crimes include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assaults. Part I property crimes include burglaries, thefts and arson.
Within the unincorporated area, there were no reported homicides, matching last year's total, and three robberies, as it was in 2000. Aggravated assaults decreased from 32 to 30, and rapes declined from three to two.
The crimes-per-1,000 population for Part I crimes was 10.92 last year and remained about the same, but compared favorably with the 20.59 crimes-per-1,000 population of just four years ago.
While Part I reported crimes increased 2.1 percent, Part II, or nonviolent crimes showed a 2.3 percent decrease.
Part II crimes showing slight to moderate decreases included simple assaults, felony and misdemeanor sex offenses, misdemeanor vandalism, weapons violations, disorderly conduct and miscellaneous misdemeanors. Those with slight to moderate increases were possession of stolen property, driving under the influence, narcotic offenses, fraud, vagrancy and traffic and warrant arrests.
Of the 59 arrests made for the 183 domestic incidents reported, 52 were for simple assaults. Seven were for aggravated assaults for the use of hands, fists or feet. No firearms or knives were used in any of the reported domestic incidents.
Of the 1,007 people arrested or cited in 2001, 98 were juveniles Of the adult arrests, 387 involved narcotics offenses; 102 were for assaults; and 85 were for DUI.
Of the juvenile arrests, 20 were for narcotics offenses, 14 were for thefts or burglaries and 14 were for assaults.
A total of 781 traffic violations last year, up from 764 in 2000. Of the citations issued, 41 were for speeding, and 17 were for restraint violations.
As within the city limits, field interviews jumped considerably. There were 1,544 FI cards issued in 2001, compared with 1403 in 2000.
There were 6,905 total calls for service in the unincorporated areas, representing an 11 percent increase. By comparison, there were 7,474 calls for service in 1995, the busiest year of the decade.
For the eighth straight year, deputies responded to the most calls on Saturdays, which was also the busiest day in all but one year in the decade, and the busiest day in the city.
Twenty percent of the calls for service resulted in noncriminal offenses, and 19 percent were disturbance calls. March was the busiest month for calls for service' the busiest days of the week were Saturday, Sunday and Friday; and the busiest time of day was 5 p.m., when 506 calls were received.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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