The Santa Clarita City Council authorized a five-person letter as a call to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors “encouraging them to make investments in enhancing retention and strengthening recruitment efforts” for the Sheriff’s Department.
The council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to send t
he letter, which was signed by all of the council members. Councilman Jason Gibbs was absent from the meeting.
During a Feb. 21 meeting, Sheriff Robert Luna presented a 2025-26 budget proposal with a 23% “unavailability rate” among deputies — including more than 1,400 patrol positions.
The city contracts with the LASD for its local policing services, a contract for the SCV Sheriff’s Station that cost the city $29,986,358 in the 2022-23 budget; was estimated to cost $33,286,658 in the 2023-24 fiscal year and was budgeted for $34,562,597 in 2024-25, per city figures.
While there was no discussion Tuesday of increasing the city’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department, which is the LASD’s largest, Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda said Thursday he didn’t believe money was the problem.
“No. 1, I think it’s less a budget issue right now than a community issue,” Miranda said. “The Los Angeles community, if you will, has made it very difficult for sheriff’s (deputies) to want to stay on the force and for new ones to want to come in, and that’s an issue.”
He said he was hopeful that new L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman would help in that respect, by “letting the sheriff be sheriffs.”
“But I think it’s more resourcing from a manpower and woman power, their people power, if you will, than it is a financial problem here in Santa Clarita,” he added, saying the city will pay up if that’s what it takes. “I don’t know about the rest of L.A., but here in Santa Clarita, we’re more than willing to cough up for public safety. That’s our No. 1 responsibility, and we’re not going to shy away from that.”
The data available for the first two months of 2025 compared to the same time last year shows Part-I crimes in the city and unincorporated areas are down, 17.5% and 24.8%, respectively. There were 681 incidents reported in the first two months of 2024 and 551 in 2025.
Over that same timespan, just in the city, for violent crime: the number of reported robberies increased from 11 to 17; aggravated assaults went down from 39 to 23; and the total number of violent crimes dropped from 56 to 47.
The biggest statistical reason for the reduction was a drop in property crimes, continuing a trend that former station captain, Cmdr. Justin Diez, noted in December and again in January.
Diez has previously told the council that fulfilling the city contract and keeping up response times has meant deputies work dozens of hours of mandatory overtime every pay period.
“Sheriff’s Department staff stressed that the high-level of vacancies, although not a unique issue to only the Sheriff’s Department, poses challenges in employee wellbeing and retention, as sworn personnel are mandated to work longer hours,” according to the staff report from Masis Hagobian, intergovernmental relations officer for the city. “In an effort to alleviate some of the vacancies, Sheriff’s Department staff proposed piloting a retention program and enhancing flexibility to backfill impairments, especially in critical operational areas.”
A statement from L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger indicated support for the LASD’s recruitment efforts, which the supervisors tried to bolster in 2023 with a five-year, $1.5 million recruitment contract with a global public relations firm.
“I’m pleased to see that next year’s proposed LASD budget includes a recommendation to continue funding academy classes — a critical step to ensure we can meet staffing needs and maintain public safety,” she wrote in a statement prior to the meeting, which also mentioned the contract. “I remain committed to exploring all effective strategies to help LASD attract and retain qualified deputies.”
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