Police Department

The Crime Fighting Strategies of the Ventura Police Department are outlined in our 2011-2014 Strategic Plan: A Crime Fighting Blueprint for Our Community, which can be found on our website at www.venturapd.org.

The plan includes five goals:

Crime Control
Team Development
Achieve Active Partnerships
Maintain Safe Neighborhoods
Efficiency and Accountability

Each goal is accompanied by performance measures to indicate our success in goals. Additionally, we identify strategies to guide our actions and provide a path to success. These citywide performance measures include some of the key indicators used by the police department to assess the level of crime in our community as well as the result of the efforts of our crime fighting resources.

Respond to In-Progress Crimes and Emergencies in 5 Minutes or Less 90% of the Time:

	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June
Target	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Actual	64%	72%	64%	68%	57%	60%	65%	63%	85%	77%
Variance	-26%	-18%	-26%	-22%	-33%	-30%	-25%	-27%	-5%	-13%

Why This Is Important

Providing for the protection of life and property is a core function of local government. The timely arrival of police officer to a reported crime in-progress or other serious emergencies is vital to prevent injury or death, apprehend suspected criminals, identify witnesses and evidence, and enhance the solvability of the crime.

What Is Being Done

The Ventura Police Department prioritizes all calls for service. Emergency and in-progress crimes are given the highest priority. Response times to these calls are reviewed on a monthly basis and compared to our goal of responding to emergency and in-progress crimes in 5 minutes or less 90 percent of the time. In order to ensure response time goals, we have reduced or eliminated response to lower priority calls for service such as burglary alarms, non-injury traffic accidents, and civil disputes. We have also instituted an online reporting system for identified low-level crimes where no means exists for identifying the suspect(s).

About This Measure

The Ventura Police Department Command Center records response times from the time the call is received until the first police officer arrives on scene using a state of the art Computer Aided-Dispatch system. Emergency response times include in-progress crimes and other serious emergencies such as injury traffic accidents.

Contact: Police Chief Ken Corney, Policechief@venturapd.org

Part One Crimes Per 1,000 Residents:

Why This Is Important

The measure of crime is an indication of the overall quality of life that exists in a community. Safe neighborhoods and safe public spaces create a sense of community that allows a city to prosper. Crime rate comparisons of similarly sized cities in Ventura County provide a baseline to measure and assess the impact of crime in our community.

What Is Being Done

Incidents of reported crimes and criminal activity are reviewed on a constant basis to ensure resources are directed towards current crime trends. The timely analysis of crime results in directed policing efforts.

About This Measure

This data reflects Part 1 crime occurring within the City of Ventura. The Ventura Police Department reports Part 1 Crime to the Department of Justice as part of the Universal Crime Report. Part 1 Crime includes: Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated (Felony) Assault, Burglary, Larceny (Theft), Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson. The “crime per thousand residents” calculation includes total reported Part 1 crime and population statistics provided annually by the California State Department of Finance.

Contact: Police Chief Ken Corney, Policechief@venturapd.org

Clearance Rate (Part One Crimes Solved):

Homicide	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	65%	65%	65%	65%
Ventura	0	0	0
Variance	-65%	-65%	-65%

Rape	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	40%	40%	40%	40%
Ventura	0	13%	25%
Variance	-40%	-27%	-15%

Robbery	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	28%	28%	28%	28%
Ventura	19%	50%	53%
Variance	-9%	22%	25%

Aggravated Assault	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	56%	56%	56%	56%
Ventura	30%	64%	65%
Variance	-26%	8%	9%

Burglary	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	12%	12%	12%	12%
Ventura	5%	12%	12%
Variance	-7%	0%	0%

Larceny-Theft	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	21%	21%	21%	21%
Ventura	7%	23%	26%
Variance	-14%	-2%	5%

Motor Veh-Theft	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^th Q
National Average	12%	12%	12%	12%
Ventura	4%	13%	14%
Variance	-8%	1%	2%

Arson	1^st Q	2^nd Q	3^rd Q	4^TH Q
National Average	19%	19%	19%	19%
Ventura	0	0	36%
Variance	-19%	-19%	17%

Why This Is important

Solving crime is the product of effective policing efforts and provides a significant deterrent for criminal activity. National crime clearance rate comparisons of similarly sized cities provide a community a baseline to assess the effectiveness of policing within communities.

What Is Being Done

Initial investigations are conducted on all reported crimes and conducted by patrol personnel. Depending on the seriousness and complexity of the crime, it may be assigned for further investigation to specialized investigators (Detectives). Solvable cases result in arrests and are considered “cleared.” Unsolved investigations are tracked and open cases are reviewed to see if additional information has resulted in new leads.

About This Measure

The Ventura Police Department tracks the clearance rate of Part 1 crime in accordance with Department of Justice Universal Crime Reporting standards. In order to be documented as a “cleared case” the suspect must have been arrested or a warrant issued for their arrest. This measure represents the actual crimes solved year to date compared to the actual crimes committed over the same time period.

Contact: Police Chief Ken Corney, Policechief@venturapd.org

Sworn Personnel “Available” Staffing

	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June
Target	122	122	122	122	122	122	122	122	122	123	122	122
Actual	111	109	110	110	112	106	103	106	106	107
Variance	-11	-13	-12	-12	-10	-16	-19	-16	-16	-16

Why This Is Important

The work of sworn police officers in crime fighting is labor intensive. As in any kind of business providing a service, the delivery of that service is directly related to the availability of highly trained and available personnel to provide the service. When a police officer position is vacant or the officer is unavailable to work because of injury in the line of duty, illness, or other circumstances, the crime fighting capacity of the police department is reduced.

The Ventura Police Department has set minimum patrol staffing levels to ensure both adequate levels of service to the public and to ensure officer safety. The absence of officers can affect overtime costs in patrol and can potentially impact Investigative units, which may be reduced or disbanded to meet patrol staffing minimums. Staffing negatively impacts the overall crime fighting capacity of the department.

What Is Being Done

The most significant impact on staffing occurs as a result of on-duty injuries of police officers. The job of a police officer takes place in a dynamic environment where officers are often called into harms way in order to protect the community. Once an injury occurs, timely and efficient treatment of the injury is important to returning the officer to full duty. The recovery progress of injured officers is discussed weekly between Department command staff members, the Human Resource Director and the City Risk Manager to ensure proper and timely medical treatment occurs.

The hiring of highly qualified police officers is accomplished through a proactive and efficient hiring process in coordination with the Human Resources Department.

Injury prevention efforts are recognized as an important tool in meeting our available staffing goals. Officers are provided state of the art safety equipment and regularly train to improve tactical skills. A culture of fitness and wellness is stressed within the department and recognized as a valuable tool to help prevent injuries.

About This Measure

The Ventura Police Department’s goal is to maintain 100% of authorized staffing with officers available for full-duty without any medical restrictions. Duty restrictions of longer than a consecutive week are tracked and count against the goal of 100% available staffing.

Contact: Police Chief Ken Corney, Policechief@venturapd.org