The power struggle continues at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department regarding the recent controversial events in Lancaster and Palmdale, and the subsequent release of a 2022 Use of Force video of a deputy punching a woman holding an infant during a traffic stop in spring of last year.
Sheriff Robert Luna held a press conference last week, one hour after releasing the controversial video of the Palmdale incident.
While the circumstances around the incident warranted the stop and taking the occupants of the vehicle into custody, many within the department are suggesting that given the area has been under intense scrutiny and a Department of Justice Consent Decree since 2015, sources say patrol deputies are well aware they should be using better judgement and consider deescalation techniques before resorting to Use of Force.
One would ask, if this was an affluent area, would the deputies have been more empathic and solution-oriented, rather than apathetic, as the Antelope Valley Consent Decree has shown station personnel conducting themselves in the area?
According to Sheriff Luna, the incident was brought to his attention a few days before by the Division Chief, who was also in that same position when the incident occurred under former Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Shorty after the video hit the news feeds, the former Sheriff defended the deputy’s (and his administration’s) actions involving the internal handling of the July 2022 Palmdale Use of Force on his Twitter account.
What triggered the Division Chief to circle back and re-visit the July 2022 Use of Force if he felt the issue was handled appropriately under the former administration?
The controversy over the latest July 2022 Use of Force incident comes days after the Lancaster incident where an African American woman, alleged to be involved in a robbery in progress, was pushed to the ground by a responding deputy, as revealed in body-worn camera footage. The deputy involved is currently under investigation and was relieved of patrol duty.
The mayor of Lancaster, Rex Parris, made a public statement, defending the Captain shortly after Lecrivain was transferred to the less preferred assignment at Court Services (rumored to be considered a demotion of sorts according to department personnel).
Smith, who was involved in the Captain selection process as was the Sheriff’s executive staff, collectively chose Lecrivain in spite of more qualified African-American candidates. Department sources say the choice completely disregarded Villanueva’s policy in effect policy that spouses are not be promoted to executive level positions (to avoid cronyism and/or nepotism. Lecrivain’s wife is currently Chief of Professional Standards Division).
A “Open Letter” allegedly written by an unnamed “deputy” at the “Lancaster station” is circling social media. The letter reveals the struggles of law enforcement in the area, and an impressive amount of detailed data and information department sources reveal could not be obtained by a patrol deputy and could only be sourced at the executive level or above.
An Open Letter to the Citizens of the Antelope Valley, and the City Council of Lancaster.
Hello,
Recent events have compelled me to write this letter. I am a Deputy who works at Lancaster Sheriff’s Station. I want you to know a little bit about us, and the work we do everyday. First, a few facts about the communities we proudly serve:
– The Deputies of Lancaster Station not only patrol the city of Lancaster, but also serve the communities of Lake Los Angeles, Hi Vista, Roosevelt, Quartz Hill, Antelope Acres, and Fairmont as well.
– The city of Lancaster has a population of approximately 172,000, the surrounding towns and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County in our patrol area are home to almost 28,000 more residents, totalling nearly 200,000 people that we serve.
– The city of Lancaster compromises almost 95 square miles itself, but the entire patrol area we are responsible for is over 600 square miles. To put this in perspective, Lancaster Station patrols an area that is one half the size of the entire State of Rhode Island.
With those facts and perspective about the vast population and territory we serve, I will tell you how many Deputies are currently staffed at Lancaster Station to accomplish this: 157. That number includes 25 Detectives, 15 School Resource Deputies, 8 special assignment Deputies (LAN-CAP), and 10 Deputies assigned to other day-to-day desk assignments at the station. This just leaves 99 Deputies whose primary function is to patrol the entirety of our patrol area, split between 3 shifts, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Additionally, we find ourselves further short staffed due to injuries, illness, and other types of leave.
Everyday we handle 300-500 calls for service on average, ranging from thefts, domestic violence, assaults, robberies, and murderers. Everyday, each of our three shift runs with a shortage of 10-15 Deputies, on average, to our daily patrol rosters. The shortages are filled with overtime, or they are just not filled at all. Deputies are routinely ordered to work mandatory overtime, either in the form of double shifts, or made to come in on their days off to fill the vacancies. Some shifts are almost entirely comprised of people working overtime. Deputies at our station work to exhaustion, and still can’t keep up with the volume of calls. We constantly struggle to balance the added workload, the compulsory time away from family, and the desire to not leave our partners without back up.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is short staffed as a whole, and few Deputies want to transfer to Lancaster. The large population and patrol area have made Lancaster Station THE busiest Sheriff’s Station in Los Angeles County. This makes the Station less desirable to work at, as Deputies can work at other stations, with less stress and less workload, but for the same pay. The Deputies that work Lancaster Station are proud of the work we do. A great many of us live and/or grew up in the Antelope Valley. This isn’t just a place we go to work, this is our home.
Home, and all that goes with it, has made us willing to endure the long hours. It gives us the courage to face violent criminals without enough back up. And there are a lot of violent criminals in our community now; just look at the crime statistics for Lancaster Station in 2022:
13 murders, 83 rapes, 335 robberies, 2,550 assaults, 756 burglaries, 1,322 thefts, and 1,064 vehicle thefts.
And 2023 is on track to outpace last year’s statistics. As of the first week of July 2023 we have had: 18 murders, 30 rapes, 210 robberies, 1,393 assaults, 411 burglaries, 591 thefts, and 716 vehicle thefts.
The reality is law enforcement as a profession across the nation has seen a sharp decline, but I will address the specific causes to Los Angeles County, and Lancaster in particular:
– The media has sensationalized a small number of negative and violent encounters in recent years, with suggested racial overtones in their headlines.
– Politicians in Sacramento, far removed from the concerns of their constituents, have all but decriminalized drug possession and property crimes by reducing charge levels and sentencing guidelines.
– LA County District Attorney George Gascon shows no regard for crime victims and routinely gives minimum sentences to even violent criminals that appear in court.
– In May 2023, Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff issued an injunction, instituting a zero-bail policy for non-violent misdemeanor and felony crimes within LA county. This injunction, favoring criminals, was obviously not challenged by Gascon. But shockingly the ruling was not challenged by Sheriff Luna, nor by LAPD Chief Moore, even though the injunction has created a revolving door for all but the most violent criminals in Los Angeles County.
All of these things have emboldened repeat offenders, as they no longer face serious consequences for their actions.
Those facts alone are not the only factors creating the losses of those once willing to protect and serve. Deputies have become increasingly hesitant to perform their sworn duty because our own department has become openly hostile toward those willing to do proactive police work. It is a reality that actively looking for, and confronting, criminals is liable to result in violence, and fighting just doesn’t look pretty on camera. Rapidly evolving, tense situations, and legal standing to defend ourselves against aggressive and violent suspects, have taken a backseat to swift and severe discipline whenever a vocal few complain in front of a camera, about a Deputy using force to overcome the violent actions of a suspect who fights to avoid being handcuffed and arrested.
To this point, I’m addressing the arrest of two robbery suspects on June 24th at Winco in Lancaster. Two Deputies responded to what was dispatched as an emergency call of store employees being assaulted by robbery suspects. All other units were tied up on other emergency situations, and were unable to provide any assistance to them. One suspect in particular refused to comply with orders given by the Deputies, and force was used prior to her being handcuffed. Handcuffs are the preferred, and most frequently used items on a Deputy’s belt. All the other items on the belt are tools to overcome the violent actions of a suspect. Violence is always the choice of the suspect; of those who decide to fight rather than deal with the legal consequences of criminal actions.
The two Deputies in this case will no longer be patrolling the streets of Lancaster, or the surrounding communities for the foreseeable future. Two less Deputies, when the station was already short staffed. Keep in mind the Deputies are equipped with body cameras that captured the entire incident. Our supervisors reviewed their body camera footage, as well as store security footage, and their actions were found to be objectively reasonable within the scope of their duties to make the arrests. But now they are being disciplined, all because a 3rd party recorded a small portion of the whole encounter, which went viral, and department supervisors, sitting in Los Angeles, reacted badly, rather than let the facts of the case shape their knee-jerk reactions. A recording which is able to be edited by media outlets for maximum ratings.
One of those Deputies has 6 years on the department. He has written 2,155 reports and made 601 arrests in his time at Lancaster station, including 111 felony arrests, 82 for violent crimes, and 133 DUI arrests, likely preventing more deaths in a city plagued with fatal traffic collisions.
The other Deputy has three years on the department, and has been at Lancaster Station for just over a year. In that time he has written 683 reports and made 163 arrests, including 71 felony arrests, and 54 violent crimes.
Deputies see the removal of hardworking personnel as nothing less than lack of faith in ability to perform our duty, and a betrayal from the Sheriff, and his command staff, overseeing the Antelope Valley. Deputies are no longer actively looking for criminal activity, and are hesitant to respond to emergency calls without several units backup to accompany them. Emergency calls are seeing a longer response time now. When our own department supports a vocal few touting a viral video, rather than support the people it has trained to handle criminal suspects in exactly this manner. When the department itself poses the greatest risk for our means to provide for our families, or worse, treating us like the very criminals we try to apprehend, that is more disheartening than the thought of dying in the line of duty.
The purpose of this letter is not to fill our community with the notion that it’s sworn defenders have abandoned it. It is just that vocal few who have gotten our department to take a more aggressive stance toward its own Deputies. Deputies willing to serve in an ever-increasingly hostile environment. If our department is willing to sacrifice us to appease a few, I hope they will listen more if the usually quiet majority, who support and appreciate the work we do, raise their voices in support more. We Deputies see you.
Everyone who waves to us.
Everyone who thanks us for our service.
Everyone who we have had the ability to help.
Everyone who sends us cards.
Everyone who prays for us when one of us gets hurt or killed.
We need you now more than ever. Please show us that support again. Let us know we are still appreciated. Let our department know. Please go online, call Lancaster Station (661-948-8466, ask for the Watch Commander, Captain, or Region Chief Dennis Kneer), email (Sheriff Robert Luna at Rluna@lasd.org , or Chief Dennis Kneer at dmkneer@lasd.org), call Sheriff’s Information Bureau (213-229-1700), or go on social media (#lancasterstation) and post your support for the Deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and Lancaster Station in particular. Please make your voices heard. Your strength and your faith can help us regain ours. We need each other, now more than ever. We still believe in you, otherwise we’d never risk our lives for this job. We so dearly hope….that you still believe in us too. We’ll fight for our community all the more if you believe in us.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and God bless,
Just a Deputy
The community’s supports our Sheriffs!! 💙
Lancaster Sheriff’s Station
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff Villanueva 33
To the LACBOS and LUNA,
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FAILURES OF OUR POLICE DEPARTMENTS AND THE UPRISE IN CRIMES IN OUR COMMUNITIES!! YOU HAVE PUT OUR COMMUNITIES IN GREAT DANGER WITH YOUR ILL IDEOLOGIES!! YOU ALL ARE A DISGRACE AND NEED TO STEP DOWN!! ALL OF YOU!!!
Supervisor Kathryn Barger
Hilda Solis
Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell
Lindsey Horvath
Janice Hahn
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna
(Please copy and share if you want spread this message.)
The letter acknowledges former Sheriff Alex Villanueva ( along with the Lancaster, Palmdale stations and LASD) shortly before a second, additional and rather angry (all in CAPS) letter addressed to Sheriff Luna and the Board of Supervisors demanding their resignations. Insiders suggest the letter was most likely written by a supporter of Villanueva and an individual no longer with the department as any active member of LASD would not want the act traced back to them and potentially suffer disciplinary action an/or retaliation.
Sheriff Luna visited the Lancaster and Palmdale stations this week amid rumblings of “work slow downs” at multiple stations in solidarity, a common practice among deputy cliques and sub-groups (a.k.a. gangs especially those at hard-charging stations like East L.A., Compton, Lennox, Century etc.).
Officers from other agencies, both retired and active, are collaborating on a prayer event at the Lancaster station on July 27th at 6 p.m. however, some LASD personnel and members of law enforcement who support their brothers and sisters on the force, are still concerned the event, which is connected to controversial incidents, could incite and further divide an already fragile community.
This is a developing story.
Living here in Lancaster, and I have first hand knowledge and experience about the ongoing situation with the Sheriff Deputies.
As a resident of Lancaster, here in the Antelope Valley, and especially considering the recent murder of a Sheriff’s Deputy, I am troubled and deeply concerned about the overall climate here. I am also concerned about the circumstances surrounding the assault of an elderly black woman at WinCo recently, which is actually walking distance from my home. It is my understanding that a lawsuit has been filed against the Sheriff Deputy Kirk, Sheriff Luna and WinCo. It was unfortunate that Mayor Parris came out early and prematurely supporting the Sheriff at the Lancaster station before getting all the facts. It is also my understanding that the City of Lancaster has implemented its own police force to work in conjunction with the LASD, in the face of the still existing federal consent decree here in the Antelope Valley. I have actually talked with one of the court mandated monitors for the consent decree, and he indicated to me that in their next report to be made to the judge in this matter, it would be an unflattering assessment of the situation here.