Statistics Show Low Crime Rate for County : Safety: Only four small, rural counties had a lower rate of violent and property crimes, state figures indicate.

With the exception of some of the smallest counties in the state, law enforcement officials agreed this week that Ventura County is the safest place to live in California.

Figures compiled by the California Department of Justice showed that Ventura County had the lowest crime rate of any of the 33 California counties with a population of more than 100,000 people.

The crime rate for Ventura County was 3,543.8 crimes for every 100,000 people in 1988, according to the state statistics. That compared to a statewide average of 6,664.7 per 100,000 population.

Not only were Ventura County’s crime figures lower than most of the larger counties in the state, they also were lower than many of the state’s smallest counties.

However, an analysis by The Times of figures supplied by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Crime Statistics showed that four small counties were even safer in terms of violent and property crimes.

The four counties with even lower crime rates than Ventura County were Mariposa, Lassen, Nevada and Tuolumne.

The state figures showed a total of 388 crimes in 1988 for all of Mariposa County, which has a population of only 14,500.

The issue of where Ventura County ranks in terms of the crime problem was raised last week when the head of the FBI’s Ventura office was quoted as describing Ventura County as “the safest place in the West.”

FBI Agent Gary Auer based that assessment on a review of 1988 FBI crime statistics covering the most populous areas of the United States, but not including the most rural areas of California and other states.

The FBI statistics cover only 21 “metropolitan statistical areas” of California that have at least one city or urban area of 50,000 people or more. They do not include San Luis Obispo County or many other smaller areas.

This week’s flurry of interest in crime statistics about the county was prompted partly by an inquiry to the FBI about statements repeatedly made by Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury in recent years that Ventura County is the most crime-free area in the West.

Bradbury, who also had been basing his statements on FBI figures, said this week that he was gratified that the FBI had publicly confirmed his past statements on the subject.

“I attribute it to several things,” he said. “I think a prosecutor’s policies kind of set the tone. I also give my staff a lot of credit for it. It’s good law enforcement.

“More important, it’s the support of the citizenry,” Bradbury said. “The public in Ventura County gives law enforcement more support than almost anyplace. I think what we have done here is created kind of an aura.”

Auer declined this week to speculate about how many small rural areas in California and other Western states might actually have fewer crime problems than Ventura, saying he can comment only on the FBI statistics for metropolitan areas.

“Based on the Justice Department’s figures, Ventura County has the lowest crime rate of any county having at least one urban area of 50,000 or more,” he said. “That means this is a safe place to live.”