LASD: SCV station emergency response improves 10%; non-emergency calls taking 21% longer
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials released response times showing deputies reported a 10% improvement in their response time to emergency calls and a 21% increase in the time taken for nonroutine calls in a year-over-year comparison.
In March 2025, the average response time for an emergency incident within Santa Clarita city limits was 5.4 minutes, which was an improvement by 0.6 minutes on the 6 minutes flat reported the previous March, according to SCV Sheriff’s Station data.
“Our response times are on par with last year and we look forward to providing the tradition of service that we continue to do,” said Lt. Brandon Barclay, acting captain for the SCV Sheriff’s Station. He declined to discuss specifics regarding any changes in the numbers in a phone interview last week.
The SCV Sheriff’s Station responds to an average of more than 250 calls each day and approximately 93,000 each year, while the department works to address its staffing level of deputies. At Wednesday’s State of the County luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, Sheriff Robert Luna said his staffing for sworn deputies is about 70% of the traditional number.
Former Sheriff’s Station Capt. Justin Diez said in a 2024 interview regarding station response times that the department’s standard is based on a 10-20-60 model, which represents 10 minutes for emergency calls, 20 minutes for priority calls and 60 minutes for routine, nonemergent calls.
For the unincorporated areas, which stretch from the Newhall Pass in the south to Gorman in the north and the Acton area in the east, the emergency call time passed the 10-minute mark, hitting 11.8 minutes.
However, at the same time, the response time to priority calls improved both in the city of Santa Clarita and the county in unincorporated areas, both shaving a little bit of time off each response.
Priority calls are described as having urgency, but nonemergent, according to past accounts from station officials, such as the search for a felony suspect who might have been spotted in an area.
The time for routine calls ticked up in both the city and the unincorporated areas, based on a year-over-year comparison — an increase of 17 minutes was seen for nonemergent calls in the city and 10.7 minutes in the unincorporated areas.
The Santa Clarita City Council approved the sending of a letter in April 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.
Funding increases
In terms of more deputies, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors’ 2025-26 budget for the LASD allocates $2 million in one-time funding for four additional academy classes, as well as recruitment efforts. Luna has requested more than 200 sworn-officer positions for 2025-26.
There were also several positions added in the county’s budget, according to a May report from the Sheriff’s Department’s Civilian Oversight Committee addressing concerns about employee wellness. A report from the previous year’s budget stated the department had 79 positions of need that were unmet in that year’s budget.
LASD officials did not respond to a question on whether the additions would impact the number of deputies at the SCV station or how many new deputies have been added as the result of its recruitment efforts.
Additionally, very similar to the past several years, 244 of the budgeted positions being requested are deputy sheriff trainee positions that represent the proposed continuation of four additional academy classes in FY 2025-26, according to the county’s budget.
“The proposed eight total academy classes in FY 2025-26 (which have been approved in the department’s budget since FY 2022-23) are expected to continue to play a crucial role in reducing the number of sworn vacancies throughout the department, which as of the beginning of December 2024, totaled 1,393,” according to the LASD.
“As part of the fiscal year 2025-26 recommended budget, the Board of Supervisors approved $2.5 million in net county cost funding along with seven new and two previously restored positions, including three law enforcement psychologists, three industrial/organizational consultants, one assistant director, one operations assistant II and one senior secretary III,” according to the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission.
In recent years, the SCV station has been staffed at about 65% to 70% of its traditional levels, which has resulted in significant mandatory overtime.
Out on patrol
A spokesman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station said Monday there is constant communication between deputies on patrol and at the station to evaluate service calls.
“We are doing absolutely everything we can with limited resources to provide the highest level of services to our community. Calls are constantly triaged and assessed and reassessed, based on the info we receive from our informants — sometimes we get it right, sometimes we have delayed services, but we always open the door for feedback, correction, improvement, reevaluation and strive to be the best we can be,” said Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the station, in a text message Monday. “Our deputies are known by our community as always having a friendly face, a servant attitude and going above and beyond as often as we can — no staffing level or response time is going to change that.”
While the response times indicate the station is still meeting what Diez previously referred to as the department’s “gold standard” when it comes to emergency response times, the departmentwide personnel challenges impact every station, said Deputy Tony Meraz, a spokesman for the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the county’s largest deputy union.
Meraz, who runs the field-training program for the Lynwood station, said when stations are staffed at their current levels, even with mutual aid from nearby stations and agencies, there are going to be difficulties, mentioning situations like the recent protests also make things harder.
“I was working the desk, and two emergency responses came out at the same time, and they were in the same geographic area,” Meraz said, explaining the choices facing deputies at his station during a previous shift.
Patrol cars are generally assigned to an area, he said. “So, a car from a different beat had to travel across the city … to address the secondary emergency. And that just speaks to our staffing. If the staffing was at a full complement, that’s generally not an issue.”
Meraz said captains are being asked to make do with what they’re given at most stations, and it’s usually not enough.
“I’ll say that our official motto or slogan, if you will, is the ‘tradition of service,’ that’s on all of our vehicles,” Meraz said. “But our unofficial motto is, ‘Do more with less.’ I think if you polled every captain, they would painfully know exactly what that means because they’re tasked with making $1 out of, you know, 65 cents.”
