OXNARD POLICE DEPARTMENT

NEWS RELEASE

INCIDENT:	Oxnard’s crime statistics show 6.1% decrease in 2018
DATE/TIME:	February 14, 2019, 5:00 pm
PREPARED BY:	Sharon Giles, Investigative Services Bureau Commander
CONTACT PERSON AND  CONTACT INFO:	Sharon Giles, Investigative Services Bureau Commander [email protected]; (805) 385-7620

 

DETAILS:

 

The City of Oxnard experienced an overall 6.1% decrease in reported crimes in 2018.  This includes an 11.8% reduction in reported violent crimes, and a 5.1% drop in reported property crimes.

 

The Department of Justice’s Uniform Crime Reporting (“UCR”) Program collects crime statistics from 17,000 city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country. The Oxnard Police Department has been tracking its UCR statistics for nearly 50 years.

The UCR program uses a system to prioritize and categorize multiple offenses down to the most serious of eight “Part One” crimes.   Part One crimes are broken into two categories – violent crimes and property crimes. The Part One schedule includes the following crime types:

Violent Crimes	Property Crimes
Criminal homicide Rape Robbery Aggravated Assault	Burglary Larceny/theft (except motor vehicle theft) Motor vehicle theft Arson

The Oxnard Police Department continued to place emphasis on crime prevention efforts in 2018, contributing to another annual decrease. Following an 11.1% overall crime decrease in 2017, Oxnard saw another 6.1% decrease in 2018.  The following chart reflects the UCR crime categories and the reported crime data for 2017 and 2018.

Part I Crime (YTD)	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Violent Crimes
Homicide	15	14	-6.7%	-1
Rape	65	66	1.5%	1
Robbery	430	327	-24.0%	-103
Aggravated Assault	398	394	-1.0%	-4
Total	908	801	-11.8%	-107
Property Crimes
Burglary	787	704	-10.5%	-83
Motor Vehicle Theft	693	783	13.0%	90
Larceny (Theft)	3,848	3,568	-7.3%	-280
Arson	43	41	-4.7%	-2
Total	5,371	5,096	-5.1%	-275
Grand Total	6,279	5,897	-6.1%	-382

Homicides

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define homicide as “the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.”

There were fourteen homicides in Oxnard in 2018. Investigators cleared seven cases with arrests.

Other homicide cases cleared in 2018 include cold cases from 1979 and 2016. Both were cleared as justifiable homicides[1].  Five additional cases from 2017 were cleared, three of which resulted in arrests, one case was cleared as a justifiable homicide, and one case was cleared by exceptional means[2] when the suspect became the victim of a homicide in a different case. In total, 16 arrests were made in 10 homicide cases throughout the year; four cases resulted in the arrest of multiple suspects.

Clearance Disposition	1979	2016	2017	2018
Arrest			3	7
Justifiable	1	1	1	1
Exceptional Means			1

The following table shows the weapons used in the cases mentioned above:

Weapons Used in Cleared Homicides	1979	2016	2017	2018
Firearm	1		4	5
Knife		1	1	1
Vehicle				2

Rape

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define rape as “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”  Based on the reporting criteria, the Oxnard Police Department reported 66 cases to the FBI.

Rape	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Rape	65	65	0.0%	0
Attempted Rape	0	1	N/A	1
Grand Total	65	66	1.5%	1

 

The suspect / victim relationships to the reported rapes were as follows in 2018:

Rape	Count
Acquaintance	27
Family	20
Domestic	13
Date Rape	4
Stranger	2
Grand Total	66

Aggravated Assaults

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define aggravated assault as “an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury.  This type of assault is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.” 

Aggravated Assaults	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Firearm	123	87	-29.3%	-36
Knife	117	145	23.9%	28
Other Weapon	123	124	0.8%	1
Feet/Fists/Hands	35	38	8.6%	3
Total	398	394	-1.0%	-4

Aggravated assaults decreased by 1% with four fewer aggravated assaults in 2018 as compared to 2017.  The aggravated assaults category is broad.  The Oxnard Police Department tracks the relationships between the victim and suspect(s) and found them to break down as follows:

Aggravated Assault Relationship Types	Count
Total Aggravated Assaults	394
Random	152
Domestic / Family	103
Acquaintance	50
Gang / Tagger	33
Road rage	15
Acquaintance (roommates)	14
Transient	9
Bar / party	7
Assault upon officer	5
Acquaintance (neighbors)	3
Civilian PD Employee assaulted	2
Hate crime	1
Grand Total	394

 

Robberies

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define robbery as “the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.” 

Robbery	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Type
Business	96	74	-22.9%	-22
Person	294	232	-21.1%	-62
Carjacking	40	21	-47.5%	-19
Total	430	327	-24.0%	-103

The number of robberies decreased from 430 in 2017, to 327 in 2018.  This category exhibited significant decreases in all areas due to policing efforts driven by actionable information.

Burglary

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define burglary as “the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.”  Burglaries decreased by 10.5%, 83 fewer crimes.  The reduction largely involved commercial burglaries.

Burglary	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Residential	464	446	-3.9%	-18
Commercial	323	258	-20.1%	-65
Grand Total	787	704	-10.5%	-83

During 2018, there were 258 commercial burglaries reported compared to 323 in 2017, a decrease of 20.1%, or 65 fewer crimes.

Arson

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define arson as “any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.”

During 2018, there were 41 reported arson incidents compared to 43 in 2017, a decrease of 4.7%, 2 less crimes.

Arson	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
Residential	6	1	-83.3%	-5
Other Residential	0	4	N/A	4
Storage	4	2	-50.0%	-2
Industrial	0	1	N/C	1
Other Commercial	6	4	-33.3%	-2
Community / Public	1	2	100.0%	1
All Other Structure	0	9	N/A	9
Motor Vehicle	6	13	116.7%	7
Other Mobile	5	0	-100.0%	-5
Other	15	5	-66.7%	-10
Grand Total	43	41	-4.7%	-2

Larcenies (Thefts)

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define larceny as “an unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.” 

	2017	2018	Percent Change	Num. Diff.
All Other	560	511	-8.8%	-49
Bicycles	156	149	-4.5%	-7
Coin op machines	20	21	5.0%	1
From buildings	340	349	2.6%	9
From motor vehicle	1,272	1,363	7.2%	91
Motor vehicle parts, or accessories	489	456	-6.7%	-33
Pocket picking	4	5	25.0%	1
Purse snatch	3	5	66.7%	2
Shoplift	1,004	709	-29.4%	-295
Total	3,848	3,568	-7.3%	-280

Larceny is responsible for 60% of the total crime picture and is the most preventable. This crime category decreased by 7.3% overall in 2018.  There were 3,848 larcenies reported during calendar year 2017 and 3,568 during 2018, a decrease of 280 incidents.  In past years, the two driving forces behind the larceny crime rate was Shoplifting and Thefts from Motor Vehicles.  This year detectives placed more emphasis on working with retailers to curb thefts from stores.  There were 295 fewer shoplifts in 2018. 

Motor Vehicle Theft

For purposes of crime classification and reporting, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice define motor vehicle theft as “the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.” A motor vehicle is defined as “a self-propelled vehicle that runs on land surface.”

Sub-Code	2017	2018	% CHG	NUM DIFF
Auto / SUV	542	605	11.6%	63
Truck / Buses	135	159	17.8%	24
Other Vehicle (Motorcycle)	16	19	18.8%	3
Total	693	783	13.0%	90

Motor vehicle theft increased by 13%, with 693 motor vehicle thefts reported during 2017, and 783 during 2018.  Statewide, the most popular cars stolen are older model Honda Accords and Civics.  Unfortunately, many of these vehicle thefts continue to be preventable.  Approximately 25%, or 200 car thefts, were considered preventable in 2018.

Overall, Oxnard saw its third consecutive year of declining crime rates.

Although 2018 data is not yet available, the FBI reported that in 2017, for cities nationwide with a population between 100,000 and 249,999, the violent crime rate averaged 4.73 incidents per 1,000 residents in 2017.  Oxnard experienced 3.88 violent crimes per 1,000 residents in 2018.

In regards to property crimes, comparable cities nationwide averaged 30.83 incidents per 1,000.  Oxnard experienced 24.68 property crime incidents per 1,000 residents in 2018.

 

DATE / TIME PREPARED:  February 14, 2019, 5:00 pm

[1] In the UCR Program, justifiable homicide is defined as and limited to: The killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty, or the killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen.

[2] In order to qualify for an “exceptional” clearance, law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions: 1) The agency must have: Identified the offender. 2) Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution. 3) Identified the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately. 4) Encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender.