Simi Valley still not locking up
Police blame carelessness for spike in thefts from vehicles
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

Police Chief Mike Lewis

Simi Valley's "safe-city reputation" might be causing its residents to be too complacent, according to Police Chief Mike Lewis' analysis of the recent 20 percent upswing in property crimes.

"It's a dilemma in our community," Lewis said. "It works against us because people feel comfortable going home and not locking up (their cars)."

According to mid-year crime statistics compiled by Simi police, the overall 17.7 percent increase in major crimes can be attributed to higher numbers for larceny and auto theft- 757 incidents last year between January and June and 985 during the same period in 2007.

"Larceny in essence is a theft of property from an unlocked vehicle or some other area where it's open to be taken from," Lewis said. "Specifically, we've just had a real rash of thefts from vehicles that weren't locked."

Lewis said the police department has discovered that Los Angelesbased thieves are taking advantage of the community's comfort level by organizing small groups to come into Simi to look for "crimes of opportunity."

Thieves are driving into Simi neighborhoods and walking down the streets checking for exposed purses, laptops and other valuables inside unlocked cars, he said.

In some instances of auto theft, car owners left their keys in plain view inside their unlocked vehicles, Lewis said. The number of auto thefts in Simi increased from 78 during the first half of 2006 to 106 this year- a jump of 36 percent.

"Auto theft and larceny concern me because those crimes are 100 percent preventable," Lewis said. "The most important thing someone could do is to lock their car in their garage at night. If they would park their car inside the garage and close the door, they have just virtually eliminated theft of the vehicle and burglary from the car."

In response to the rise in property crimes, Simi police have begun increasing their enforcement efforts by putting more unmarked cars at the entrances to major neighborhoods during certain hours of the night- giving officers the opportunity to spot suspicious activity before it's too late.

Lewis said some of these operations have already led to arrests.

The mid-year major crime statistics, which are divided into violent crimes and property crimes, show the total number of reported crimes in 2007 has risen to 1,278 compared to 1,086 in the same period of 2006.

Still, the figures show a 10.5 percent decrease in violent crimes, which include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Reported gang crimes, excluding graffiti, have also gone down- from 56 to 47 this year.

"Violent crimes are unpredictable and uncontrollable," Lewis said.

"There's very little we can do to influence that," he said. "A lot of times it's a crime of passion."

Lewis said the police department follows crime trends monthly in order to determine how to best direct resources.

Besides property theft involving cars, there are no major crime trends at present.

"We don't have break-ins or any residential burglaries of any large numbers," he said.

"If people would just take the time for prevention- to put cars in their garages, don't leave anything visible inside and lock the car- those three simple things could answer all of that."