Simi Valley Edges Thousand Oaks as Safest City

Simi Valley was the safest large city in the nation for the first half of 1997, nudging east county rival Thousand Oaks for the top spot, according to FBI statistics released Sunday.

The new midyear Uniform Crime Reports reflect the traditional status of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks as two of the nation’s safest cities with populations of at least 100,000.

Simi Valley ranked as the nation’s top low-crime city in 1993 and 1996, while Thousand Oaks ranked first in 1994 and 1995. Between them, the two cities have ranked first nationally six of the last nine years.

“I still say that’s the best competition we could ever have,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who acts as police chief in Thousand Oaks. “But it’s a little too early to ring the bell for 1997, because the months of November and December tend to have an increase in bank robberies and thefts.”

Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams said the safest-city designation is one in which his community takes pride.

“We have a very low crime rate due to a combination of factors, and No. 1 is the close partnership we have with the community,” he said. “They don’t stand for any type of suspicious or criminal activity. They’re our eyes and ears, and they get on the telephone to us.

“We also launched a gang-suppression effort in January, and that’s paying some dividends,” he said. “We’ve had 13 or 14 gang sweeps over the last two years.”

The safe-city rankings are based on a ratio of city population to crimes reported in eight categories--murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

For the first six months of last year, Simi Valley reported a 14% drop in crime compared with figures for the same period in 1996--1,040 offenses compared with 1,209. The decline is even more impressive when compared with the city’s 1,584 crimes reported in the first half of 1995.

Troubling, however, was a 42% rise in violent offenses, from 65 to 92, including a quadruple homicide.

“That is certainly a concern,” Adams said. “But violent crimes were very low the year before, so it’s hard to always be lower and lower.”

*

In fact, the 1997 violent crime totals are exactly the same as in the first six months of 1995.

All four of Simi Valley’s homicides this year came in one tragic assault by a despondent husband in May. Ahmad Salman shot his wife, Nabela, and the couple’s three young sons before committing suicide.

In Thousand Oaks, over the same six months, there was also a high-profile homicide, when bank teller Monica Leech was killed in a takeover robbery in April.

But, overall, the county’s second-largest city experienced a sharp drop in crime, especially in violence against people. Total crimes fell from 1,396 for the first half of 1996 to 1,088 this year--a 22% decline.

Violent offenses fell from 142 to 99, with the sharpest decline in felony assaults, from 93 to 65, and in robberies, from 39 to 17.

Another white-collar suburb nearby in Los Angeles County--Santa Clarita--placed third in the nation for the first half of 1997, followed by Amherst Town, N.Y., a college community in suburban Buffalo, and three more California suburbs--Sunnyvale, Irvine and Orange.

*

Oxnard, the only other local city included in the FBI report, saw serious crimes edge upward, from 3,894 for the first half of 1996 to 4,045 for the same period this year. The biggest increase was in felony assaults, which rose from 318 to 540. But murders were down from 10 to 3.

* MAIN STORY: A1

*

On the Record

“That’s the best competition we could ever have, but it’s a little too early to ring the bell for 1997, because the months of November and December tend to have an increase in bank robberies and thefts.”

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp, who serves as Thousand Oaks police chief, discussing the friendly rivalry between her city and Simi Valley, which vie for top ranking as the nation’s safest city. B1