Each goal is accompanied by performance measures to indicate our successes. 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.
Response Times
Why this is important: The timely arrival of a police officer to a reported crime in-progress or other serious emergency is vital to prevent injury or death, apprehend suspected criminals, identify witnesses and evidence, and enhance the ability to solve the given crime.
What is being done: 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 less than 5 minutes. We also have the goal of arriving on scene for Priority 2 and Priority 3 calls within 10 & 20 minutes respectively.
Crime Clearance Rates
Why this is important: Crimes are considered to be "cleared" when an arrest is made, when the suspect is charged with an offense, or the case is turned over to the court for prosecution. National crime clearance rate comparisons of similarly sized cities provide a baseline to assess the effectiveness of policing within communities. This is important information because solving crimes can be an indicator of police effectiveness as well as police-community collaboration.
What is being done: Solving crime is the product of effective community policing efforts and provides a significant deterrent for criminal activity. Depending on the seriousness and complexity of the crime, it may be assigned for further investigation by detectives. Solvable cases result in arrests and are considered “cleared.”
*If you visited this page in 2022, you may notice that some of the statistics look different. In 2023, we are transitioning away from the traditional Uniformed Crime Reporting (UCR) and implementing the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), as recommended by the FBI. The UCR system captures crime data based on only eight categories, while NIBRS collects data from over 50 categories. NIBRS collects more detailed information, provides greater specificity in reporting criminal offenses, and provides more data points for analyzing crime trends.
With this new format, crime rates will look significantly different, and at first glance, crime will appear to have increased significantly. The appearance of increased crime is due to the NIBRS mechanism of data collection and reporting as noted above.
Sworn Demographics
Why this is important: The work of sworn police officers is vital to the safety of our community. 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.
What is being done: To ensure sworn demographics align with those of our community, we are developing a police explorer program with representation from all city districts, expanding our recruitment efforts, and evaluating our hiring/selection process.
Vagrancy Complaints
In 2023, Ventura PD implemented a new Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, further increasing accuracy of reporting, resulting in the appearance of increased vagrancy calls and crime.
Why this is important: The impacts of vagrancy can have a significant impact on the quality of life in a community. Measuring police calls for service to behaviors related to vagrancy helps to define the scope and depth of the problem as well as a indicator of the success of the citywide strategies implemented to address the issue.
What is being done: To decrease community complaints related to vagrancy, we're working the City Attorney's Office to update the Chronic Offender Ordinance, enhancing our coordination with County Behavioral Health, and are designating specific "enhanced patrol" officers to focus on vagrancy related calls.
Property Crimes
Why this is important: Maintaining safe neighborhoods helps make our community a better and safer place. This measure aims to reduce identified crimes that impact neighborhoods compared to the annual average from the last 3 years.
What is being done: A few strategies we're implementing to increase collaborative efforts and decrease crimes that impact neighborhoods include: creating an in-person Neighborhood Watch Program, participating in the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) grant operations, and are focusing investigative resources on addressing narcotic/property crimes in neighborhoods and public spaces.
Use of Force
Use of Force is the application of physical techniques or tactics, chemical agents, or weapons to another person. It is not a use of force when a person allows themselves to be searched, escorted, handcuffed, or restrained.
Why this is important: Efficiency and accountability are important in building public trust and we are committed to increasing transparency with our community.
What is being done: To increase transparency and attain a 100% "within department policy" for all use of force incidents, we are providing bi-annual statistics for use of force, public complaints, and department training, improving the way we track complaints, and are conducting use of force skills training and testing twice a year.