SANTA PAULA : Police Report Major Crimes Up 3% in ’92

Reported major crimes increased 3.1% in Santa Paula last year, with increases in theft, burglary and aggravated assaults more than offsetting drops in robberies and rapes, the Police Department has reported.

In a report to the City Council, Police Chief Walter Adair said this week that the city’s rate of 61.8 major crimes per 1,000 people was the second highest in Ventura County, behind Oxnard.

But Adair said such a comparison is misleading, because most cities in Ventura County have such low crime rates. The county overall has one of the lowest crime rates in the West.

Adair noted that the rate of major crime in Beverly Hills is 15% higher than Santa Paula’s, while Palm Springs has a crime rate that is 40% higher.

Cities annually collect data for the FBI on major crimes, defined as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.

While major crimes increased slightly, the number of traffic accidents declined by 6.5%, including a 16.6% drop in the number of injury accidents, Adair said.

Gang violence has fallen sharply since 1990, when the Police Department initiated a get-tough policy toward gang crime, Adair said. But the trend was reversed late last year with two high-profile gang slayings in the city, he added.

Although police said they believe they know who was responsible for both 1992 slayings, Adair said uncooperative witnesses have prevented police from making arrests.