There were at least 26 additional violent crimes committed in Simi Valley in 2006 compared to 2005, according to the city's part I crime statistics report released Wednesday by the police department.
Part I crimes include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft, auto theft and arson.
After murder-free years in '05 and '06, the city recorded three reported homicides in '06, the most in Simi since that number peaked in 2001 at six.
Reported cases of violent robbery saw the greatest increase, jumping 23 percent from 47 reports to 58.
Rapes (21 compared to 17) and aggravated assaults (58 compared to 47) also increased over the oneyear period, but only slightly.
Sgt. David Livingstone warned that when looking at Simi's crime statistics, percentages don't represent the whole picture.
"You've got to be very careful because you're only looking at the difference between '05 and '06," Livingstone said. "If you have zero murders one year and just one the next, that's a 100 percent increase."
On the positive side, thanks to an 11 percent drop in property crime, overall incidents of reported Part I crimes in Simi were down 9.2 percent in '06, falling from 2,337 to 2,080.
In 2006, the police department investigated 424 burglaries, compared to 583 in 2005. Reported cases of auto theft also decreased, from 217 reported cases to 159.
The report also reveals that arson remains a problem in Simi Valley, with 22 incidents reported in 2006- the same number as in '05.
Simi Valley's unofficial per capita rate for Part I crimes was 18.6 in 2006, according to police.
That number uses 2005 population numbers. The official 2006 rate will be lower given the city's population has grown in the last year.
According to Livingstone, Simi's crime rate dropped 38 percent between 1986 and 2006, despite the city's population increase.
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