COP ALL SUITED UP: GUN, SIREN, PENCIL.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

MOORPARK -- Deputy Tim Lohman was a rookie, fresh out of the academy, when the call came in over the radio: Stolen car, officer in pursuit.

He checked the location, right nearby, and fired up his lights and siren. Soon, he was behind a sergeant, both giving chase down Tierra Rejada Road. Lohman gripped the wheel and hung on.

They were heading into Simi Valley and Lohman's speedometer raced to 100 mph. The suspect rounded a curve and the sarge lost him, but the freshly-minted cop kept tight on the fleeing vehicle, like a bloodhound closing in on its quarry. The suspect clipped a Mustang going the other way, flipping it.

The stolen car came to a halt, and Lohman slammed on the brakes.

``I got out of the car, gun drawn, and approached the vehicle,'' he remembered. ``He pops out and runs into a field. We're in a foot pursuit. He jumps into a ravine and I chase him down. He gives up. ... It wasn't like walking into a room full of Rollin' 60s Crips, but for me, it was a little out of the ordinary.''

All cops have their war stories, and this is Lohman's most dramatic. A high-speed pursuit through the normally sleepy streets, weapon drawn, a happy ending with the bad guy in jail and then a tragic twist -- the Mustang driver died of injuries sustained in the crash.

That was 12 years ago, but it sticks with the 36-year-old deputy to this day. In a way, the chase that nabbed the crook in the ravine illustrates the drama, challenge and danger of what he and the rest of the 39-deputy department deal with daily.

Borrowing a line from ``Dragnet's'' Sgt. Joe Friday, this is the city, Moorpark, Calif. Lohman works here. He carries a badge. He also carries a pen. In one of the safest cities in Ventura County, and indeed, the nation, he has the unusual task of reminding the public about the dangers of crime when criminals largely stay away.

In the first six months of 2005, the Moorpark Police Department, a contract agency of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, logged two homicides, one robbery and 207 other serious crimes. In the first half of this year, it reported no homicides, six robberies and 203 other serious crimes. It has just one gang, the Moorpark Locos, whose membership checks in around 40 members or so.

It's so safe, in fact, that Lohman has been approached when he's out of uniform by people he's arrested. They've thanked him for locking them up and deterring them from their earlier paths into lives of crime.

In contrast, the Los Angeles Police Department, which covers a far larger area, reported 28 homicides just last month, along with 1,007 robberies and 9,342 other serious crimes. More than 700 gangs prowl its streets, with more than 39,000 members -- more than Moorpark's entire population of about 35,000.

``We don't have the drama and violence that Los Angeles has on a daily basis, but we have crime,'' said Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson, Lohman's superior who's spent the past 15 years, off and on, serving Moorpark. ``We've got vehicle burglaries, vandalism, graffiti, domestic violence and fraud and forgery. We're busy going to fight calls, family problems.''

Lohman's tricky task: to remind the good citizens of Moorpark of the role the police play in keeping them safe from thugs, rapists and gangsters. His weapon: the press release.

Armed with a Moorpark College degree, a fondness for mysteries and a passion for law enforcement, he tackles crime with vigorous writing. In the absence of a salacious murder or horrific crime spree to cover, he highlights minor drug busts, kids getting ``high'' in a field on inhalants and the danger of graffiti. To do so, he employs a writing style that gives the incidents the noir-esque drama of a Raymond Chandler novel.

``At about 5:10 p.m., Deputy Salas was on patrol when he observed a vehicle in violation of a minor traffic infraction,'' he wrote in a recent bulletin. ``Salas stopped the vehicle and contacted the driver. Upon contact, Salas detected a strong odor of Marijuana coming from the vehicle.''

The noxious reefer fumes tipped the deputy, who called in backup and a K-9 partner for support. Soon they had weed, coke, some meth, $2,000 and a loaded .40-caliber gat. In his account, Lohman reaches for another deadly piece of ammunition: the rhetorical question.

``Although this one vehicle stop netted a significant amount of drugs and a weapon, what if this stop would have never happened?'' he continued. ``Could those drugs have reached our streets, our children or our schools? And what about the gun? Could there have been a drug homicide or innocent victim?''

With the pair of punks in custody, Lohman didn't have to answer those tough questions. And his fanciful writing could stave off more crime, said Capt. Ron Nelson, the sheriff's public information officer. Nelson oversees the agency's public relations and counts himself as a fan of Lohman's flair for the dramatic.

``What we're finding is that because we have safer communities, people get complacent,'' Nelson said. ``They leave their doors unlocked and invite criminals to do their dastardly things. By educating people that this isn't just Sleepy Hollow out here, we can make people know about these crimes.''

An earlier Lohman missive on the evils of gangs inspired a three-part series in a local weekly newspaper. Spreading the word, he believes, can be just as useful as reaching for the cuffs.

``We need to get the bad guys to know, hey, you come here and commit a crime and we're probably going to catch you,'' he said, voice steely. ``They stick out like a sore thumb.''

And he wants it to stay that way. The day people let down their guard, the lawbreakers arrive, along with their evil habits and nefarious schemes. So Lohman keeps typing, hoping to keep the public aware of the dangers of drugs, spray paint and guns.

``Deputy Salas, doing his job, removed weapons, drugs and two drug dealers from the streets of Moorpark,'' he wrote, closing his release like an Old West sheriff. ``That's one more for the good guys and a message for the bad guys ... Stay out of Moorpark.''

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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Moorpark sheriff's Deputy Tim Lohman writes colorful press releases he hopes alert local residents to the need for safety.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer