Violent crime falls in valley
By Lenny Roberts

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department has released its crime statistics for the year ending Dec. 31, indicating that reported violent crimes declined while property crimes increased 18.8 percent.

Although reported rapes in the unincorporated areas of the valley doubled from two to four, robberies and aggravated assaults dropped, bringing the overall total of reported violent crimes to 23, down nearly 38 percent from what was reported in 2001. Property crimes, however, increased from 255 to 303.

In reported property crimes, the only one showing a decrease was vehicle burglaries, which dropped from 36 to 28. Those on the rise were residential burglaries, up 10 to 49; commercial burglaries, up 11 to 25; and petty thefts, up 28 to 127. The two arsons reported matched those of 2001, and reported grand thefts increased from 50 to 51.

Law enforcement officials emphasize that increase- or decrease-percentages in small-population areas can be misleading. More important is that reported crimes handled by sheriff's deputies patrolling the unincorporated areas include those which occur outside of the valley between Casitas Springs and the Ventura city limit - typically a higher-than-normal crime area.
In Part I crimes, the rate-per-thousand population dipped from 1.61 in 2001 to 1.00 last year.

Part II, or mostly misdemeanor offenses, swelled from 1,158 reported in 2001 to 1,415 last year for a 22.2 percent increase. That increase help raise the overall crime rate-per-thousand population from 63.23 in 2001 to 75.35 last year.

Part II crime increasing last year included simple assaults, from 121 to 161; narcotics offenses, from 303 to 371; felony and misdemeanor sex offenses, from 10 to 27; forgeries, from 11 to 19; misdemeanor and felony vandalisms, from 80 to 133; weapons violations, from seven to 15; and traffic arrests, from 203 to 269.

Part II crimes showing a decrease included arrests for driving under the influence, from 69 to 48; miscellaneous alcohol-related offenses, from 47 to 32; and frauds, from 33 to 25.

As in the city, which is also patrolled by sheriff's deputies, there were no reported homicides last year, and no firearms or knives were used in the reported 167 domestic violence incidents.

The heat may have contributed to the 37 crimes reported in August, the most of any month, and the majority of the calls for service were taken between 5 and 6 p.m. At 711, July generated the most calls for service, followed by September, with 705. The quietest month with 30 days or more was April, with 524 calls. Saturdays generated the most calls for service and thursdays generated the fewest.

Noncriminal events accounted for 18 percent of the calls for service, followed by disturbance calls at 17 percent. Calls for violent incidents numbered 383 for the year, or 5 percent of the total calls for service.

Following a year that showed nearly no increases in incidents of adult crimes, those reported in the unincorporated area jumped a whopping 28 percent, with the biggest increase in the narcotics category where 497 crimes were committed, compared with 389 in 2001. Felony and misdemeanor arrests, too, were up, from 915 in 2001 to 1,099 last year.

Crimes reportedly committed by juveniles, however, dipped from 133 to 126. Although juvenile arrests in both felony and misdemeanor offenses rose from 97 to 108. As was the case in the city of Ojai, narcotics offenses were the leading crimes committed by juveniles as twenty-three people under the age of 18 were arrested. By comparison, there were three narcotics-related arrests made in 1990, and none in 1991.

When the emphasis on traffic enforcement began in 1997, a decade-high 1,438 citation were written. In subsequent years, the number of citations written continued to decline until a slight upturn in 2001. Last year, citations appear to be on the rise as 949 were written.. Of those, 157 were for hazardous violations, 56 were for excessive speed, 16 were for lack of restraints, six were right-of-way offenses, and 714 fell into the category of "other."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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