Countywide, property crimes dominated 2008 FBI Part I statistics

September 18, 2009
Santa Paula News

Property crimes dominated Part I Crime statistics in 2008 for Ventura County cities, according to the annual FBI report on crime rates across the nation.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesProperty crimes dominated Part I Crime statistics in 2008 for Ventura County cities, according to the annual FBI report on crime rates across the nation.Santa Paula was the only city that saw an increase in Part I Crime, with 30.1 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2008. This is up from the 28.6 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2007, a figure Police Chief Steve MacKinnon said is questionable.The Santa Paula Police Department breakdown reports 29.7 Part I Crimes per 1,000 residents last year, a lower number attributable, noted MacKinnon, to the then-current population data used by the SPPD. The FBI based their statistics on an outdated, smaller population count for the time period reported.
Countywide, Ojai, the smallest city, saw the largest drop in crime, from 33.5 per 1,000 residents in 2007 to 24 in 2008. Oxnard, the county’s largest city, experienced the smallest decrease, from 27.5 crimes per 1,000 people in 2007 to 27.4 in 2008.Although Ventura, the fourth-largest city, had the second biggest drop in crime, from 40.1 in 2007 to 35.6 last year, it still had the highest 2008 rate in the county. Fillmore’s crime rate went down by 3.5 percent to 20 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2008. Port Hueneme saw a decrease from 22.5 in 2007 to 19.4 last year, while Simi Valley’s went from 20.9 to 17.8 crimes per 1,000 residents.Thousand Oaks had the lowest 2008 crime rate in Ventura County, with a decrease from 16.7 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2007 to 15.4 last year. Camarillo’s rate dropped from the 2007 rate of 18.3 to 17.5 in 2008, and in Moorpark crimes per 1,000 residents dropped from 17.1 to 16.6.Nationwide, there were 36.7 Part 1 Crimes reported for every 1,000 residents in 2008, compared with 37.3 in 2007. Although Ventura County overall represents one of the lowest crime rates in the nation, the FBI cautions against ranking cities based on the Uniform Crime Report figures, noting the many factors that affect crime and people’s likelihood of reporting it.



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