That year, there were 69 crimes per 1,000 residents. In 1998, there were 40 crimes per 1,000 residents. Among nonviolent crimes, burglaries were down 11 percent, continuing a remarkable trend. Since 1984, burglaries per 1,000 residents have declined 75 percent in Oxnard, the numbers show. The only other category that went up was assaults, which increased 4 percent last year.
Police attribute the figure to a jump in the number of domestic violence cases reported.
While Wilcox has known of Oxnard's falling crime rate for years, he said he hopes other people who bash the city finally will give it some credit. For a lot of years that's been a bad rap.