REVIEW OF FBI DATA SHOWS SANTA CLARITA NATION'S THIRD-SAFEST CITY.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Service

An analysis of FBI crime figures and census data boost Santa Clarita's ranking on the nation's safe cities list from No. 4 to the third-place spot.

The computer-assisted analysis was done by The Riverside Press-Enterprise and shows that per resident Santa Clarita has the third-lowest crime rate in the U.S. of cities of 100,000 or more.

``We're not surprised because this community is safe for a reason - there's tremendous community involvement and a number of anti-crime programs,'' said city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz.

Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks rank first and second, respectively, and Sunnyvale and Irvine follow in the Nos. 4 and 5 positions, the newspaper said.

The Press-Enterprise analysis of serious crime - rape, robbery, murder, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, theft, auto theft and arson - was based on preliminary data for 1996 that was released earlier this month by the FBI and U.S. Census data from 1994, the most recent year available.

Census data was needed for an accurate picture because FBI figures, which showed a 3 percent drop in crime nationwide and a 7 percent drop in violent crime, did not take population into account when comparing crime in the nation's larger cities.

In Simi Valley, the nation's safest city with fewer than 23 serious crimes for every 1,000 residents, officials are not celebrating.

``Already this year, our homicide rate has increased 500 percent over last year,'' said police spokesman Bob Gardner, referring to the May 27 shooting deaths of a family of five. Last year Simi Valley, a conservative, law-and-order city that is home to a large contingent of Los Angeles police officers, reported just one homicide.

Ahmad Salman, 44, who officials said was depressed and deeply in debt, shot and killed his 38-year-old wife and their three sons, twins age 5 and a 3-year-old, at their Simi Valley home then killed himself with the 30.06 rifle. The shootings marked the bloodiest day in Ventura County since Dec. 2, 1993, when a distraught jobless man shot and killed four people before police shot him to death.

The crime analysis was not entirely flattering for the region, however. When looking only at violent crime - rape, robbery, homicide and aggravated assault - the analysis shows the region faring a tad worse. Just six California cities, including five in Southern California, make the top-20 list of safest communities, when looking at just violent crime.

While Rancho Cucamonga moves up from 12th-safest city to the 11th, San Bernardino falls to the 26th most violent city in the country and Riverside falls to 55th most violent.

Baton Rouge, La., ranks as the city with the highest violent crime rate, according to the analysis.

The falling crime rates and relatively safe picture painted of much of Southern California by the analysis raises questions for many about the media - especially television - which often tend to emphasize and sometimes sensationalize crime news.

Law enforcement and civic officials complain that the daily barrage of murder, robbery, rape and gang violence depicted in the news creates a sense that the crime is on the upswing and, consequently, that the community is getting more dangerous.