Violent crimes drop in county
Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Throughout Ventura County, violent crimes are down, but home burglaries are up, according to a recent report released by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

A rise in the number of home burglaries between January and June in Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Ojai drove a countywide 19 percent increase in home burglaries, the report said.

"Certainly the Moorpark and Thousand Oaks police departments see those spikes and they are going to strategize on ways to reduce those numbers," said Capt. Jerry Hernandez, a spokesman with the department.

The report looks at crime statistics in the five cities- Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo, Fillmore and Ojai- and the unincorporated areas throughout Ventura County served by the Sheriff's Department. It compares those numbers between the first six months in 2006 and 2007.

The department reported 297 home burglaries, compared to 249 for the same period last year. Thousand Oaks reported the most number of home break ins with 130 over the past six months, while Moorpark saw a rise in home burglaries from 13 in the first half of 2006 to 27 in the first half of this year.

Fillmore and Camarillo enjoyed drops in home burglaries of 14 and 13 percent, respectively. There was also a 15 percent drop in home burglaries in the uninporated areas.

Overall, however, the Sheriff's Department reported a 21 percent drop in violent crimes- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault- as compared to last year.

Hernandez said the drop in violent crimes is due to the department's new gang unit, which took the streets in February in an attempt to target the county's gangs.

"We're really trying to tackle the gang problem," Hernandez said. "A lot of that drop is due to the aggressive enforcement of those known criminals."

Most significant was the drop in homicides. Last year, four homicides were reported throughout the county in the first part of the year. This year, only one was reported.

Reports of aggravated assault were down across the county. Thousand Oaks saw a 29 percent drop in the number of aggravated assault reports from 65 last year to 46 this year. The unincorporated area of the county reported a 13 percent decrease in aggravated assaults from 83 to 72.

Hernandez said those lower numbers may have been due to the way the department is categorizing reports of aggravated and simple assaults.

Fillmore, with a 4 percent increase, was the only city to post a rise in the total number of violent crimes from 28 reported last year, compared to 29 this year.

Petty theft remains the number one reported crime across the county. It accounts for 40 percent of the total reported crimes.

Hernandez said thefts from unlocked cars make up a majority of all petty theft reports.

During the first quarter of the year, he said, thefts from cars were rampant throughout the county.

"We started putting the word out . . . reminding the public to lock your car and take your valuables inside," Hernandez said.

The public awareness campaign worked, he said, and the department has since seen a drop in thefts from cars.