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City again posts lowest crime stats in county




By Art Van Kraft

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GOOD NEWS—Capt. Stephen Wade, Moorpark’s police chief, leads the station that has made Moorpark the safest city in Ventura County. DARLEEN PRINCIPE/Acorn Newspapers GOOD NEWS—Capt. Stephen Wade, Moorpark’s police chief, leads the station that has made Moorpark the safest city in Ventura County. DARLEEN PRINCIPE/Acorn Newspapers Moorpark is the safest city in Ventura County, according to statistics released this week by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

Part 1 crimes, which encompass property crimes and crimes of violence, dropped in Moorpark from 450 in 2013 to 317 in 2014.

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According to statistics, there were nine crimes per 1,000 residents—the lowest rate among five contracted cities and all unincorporated areas in the county patrolled by sheriff’s deputies.

Ojai had the highest crime rate of 17.1 crimes per 1,000 residents. Camarillo’s crime rate was 15.7 per 1,000 people; Thousand Oaks’ was 13.4, which was higher than Fillmore’s 11.2 and the unincorporated area’s number of 10.3.

Although the sheriff’s offi cereporteda1percentrisein violent crime in the five cities and the unincorporated area it patrols, the overall part 1 crime rates dropped 10 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Violent crime

Of the 39 violent crimes committed in Moorpark in 2014, none were homicides.

The number of aggravated assaults dropped from 27 in 2013 to 20 last year.

There was a rise in rapes from four in 2013 to 13 last year

Cmdr. Monica McGrath with the sheriff’s office said the spike in reported rapes is due to a broader definition of what is considered rape.

McGrath said the FBI has long defined rape as a female victim who was sexually assaulted by a male. She said the definition now includes male victims and also takes into account sodomy and oral copulation.

The commander said she was glad to see the definition for rape was broadened because it gives a clearer picture of how many sexual assaults are being committed.

Property crime

Property crimes are divided into six categories: residential burglary, other burglary, grand theft, petty theft, auto theft and arson.

Among the six categories, Moorpark saw the largest drop in residential burglary. There were 14 reported in 2014 as opposed to 35 the year before.

Moorpark’s police chief said many burglaries are committed by crime crews who come to Ventura County from Los Angeles.

“We avoided most of the ‘knock, knock’ burglaries, where a thief will check to see if someone is home by coming to the door before breaking in,” the captain said.

Officials attribute a low crime rate to more effective policing in the city.

The Moorpark Police Department is able to free up more deputies because of the beat coordinators system.

A beat coordinator is a senior deputy who works the same area each shift. They usually show up after a crime has been reported and try to find solutions to the problem. Having the senior deputy respond to the crime scene, allows the deputies to answer other calls.

“The beat coordinator goes out and does some digging to find the root cause of the problem,” Wade said. “They look into the situation and bring all of our resources to bear on the problem.”

The senior deputies can give more time to a crime than a deputy on patrol.

Wade said in one case, a person was assaulted in an area of Moorpark where some streetlights were out. Low streetlights often lead to high crime, so a senior deputy called Southern California Edison and asked to have the lights repaired.

Beat coordinators can also develop trust in the neighborhoods they patrol. The captain said when people know an officer, they are more likely to report a crime or give police information.

A neighborhood that feels secure can also become complacent, he said.

“One of the problems with a safe community is that people stop locking cars or homes,” he said. “We had a rash of car robberies up in the Mountain Meadows area this year.”

The police department placed electronic sign boards on Tierra Rejada Road and warned residents to “lock it, hide it, keep it.”

“Our objective is to make the crook move on to the next area because this location is secure,” Wade said. “Simply by doing that, you can avert a lot of the crimes.”


Article Approved for redistribution--by Acorn Staff Dan Wolowicz