The FBI collects nationwide crime statistics voluntarily reported by over 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country in its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. This data can be useful, but the FBI strongly advises against using the data to "rank" cities and counties solely based on this information. Rankinig can be misleading as the data does not factor in things like population density, socioeconomic factors, demographics and other information.

Now that we have that out of the way, we have compiled local crime data in and around Ventura County from these reports from 2006 through 2010.

So that we're all on the same page, Violent Crime includes things like murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property Crime includes burglary, larceny and vehicle thefts.

In 2010, the FBI reported a Violent Crime rate of 4.0 incidents per 1,000 U.S. residents out of the entire U.S. population of 308.7 million. The U.S. Property Crime rate in 2010 was 29.4 crimes out of every 1,000 residents. This is a sizeable drop from the 7.6 Violent Crimes and 51.4 Property Crimes per 1,000 people back in 1991.

In California, there were 4.4 Violent Crimes per 1,000 residents and 26.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents in 2010. That is down from 5.3 and 31.7 incidents, respectively, in 2006.

Now for Ventura County and surrounding areas, including adjacent cities of Calabasas, Agoura, Westlake Village (L.A. County portion) and Malibu, as well as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Fillmore, Camarillo, Santa Paula, Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme and Ojai. The aggregate Violent Crime and Property Crime incidents per 1,000 residents in 2010 were 2.1 and 19.8, respectively, in 2010, well below U.S. and California averages. In 2006, the rates were 2.7 and 20.9, so we have made positive improvements over the years.

The 2010 Violent Crime rate in Ventura County ranged from below 1 incident per every 1,000 residents in Camarillo, Agoura, Calabasas and Westlake Village to between 3 and 4 incidents per 1,000 in Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Santa Paula. It should be noted that all local cities are individually were below the California and U.S. averages.

Moorpark had the lowest Property Crime rate in 2010, with only 10.3 incidents per 1,000 residents. Most cities were in the 10 to 20 per 1,000 range. The city of Ventura was an outlier on the high side, with 33 incidents per 1,000 residents in 2010.

Let's take a closer look at one city, Thousand Oaks, which includes Newbury Park and the Ventura County portion of Westlake Village.

Violent Crimes in Thousand Oaks last year were as low as they've been in recent years, but Property Crimes spiked up in 2010. Thefts from automobiles and homes have been on the rise and no doubt are a factor. Lock up and stay safe everyone! Click here for local crime updates.