The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is planning to ask the county for approximately $220,000 to pay overtime for federally designated task force officers to help stem a rise in violent crime seen in northern L.A. County, according to the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors hearing.
The North County Safe Streets Task Force is a “collaborative, multi-agency initiative” that targets “drug trafficking, money laundering, violent crimes” from criminal organizations, according to LASD officials, who asked for the funding in a letter dated Tuesday.
“In the northern region of the county — including Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita — limited investigative resources have challenged efforts to manage rising violent crime,” according to the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.
Lancaster, in particular, has experienced a surge, leading the county with 20 homicides since Jan. 1, 2025, according to county officials. But Santa Clarita also has seen an uptick, according to LASD data.
Despite a reported drop in overall crime — numbers indicate overall crime is down 13% for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station as of the end of November — violent crime is on the rise.
Santa Clarita had four murders in 2025 — one more than in 2024 — including an Oct. 31 shooting outside a Halloween party that left two dead. No suspects have been publicly identified or arrests made, according to Homicide Bureau officials on Friday.
“The NCSSTF significantly boosts the department’s ability to combat these trends through targeted, data-driven operations in high-crime areas,” according to the agenda report. “The task force also strengthens investigative capacity to dismantle violent criminal networks and disrupt firearms trafficking into the region.”
SCV Sheriff’s Station officials have declined repeated requests to talk about efforts to crack down on gang behavior, which was targeted by a highly publicized raid in April.
However, investigators’ statements in search-warrant requests have noted a continued increase in such activity since a Newhall double murder in March 2023 appeared to further fuel longstanding local gang rivalries. The incident and escalating violence is mentioned in more than a half-dozen documents.
When asked about the department’s manpower during a recent community question-and-answer session with the business community, Capt. Brandon Barclay praised the help the station has received from task force at filling personnel gaps.
Departmentwide, the agency is still at about 77% of its traditional number of deputies due to challenges in hiring.
Barclay did not immediately respond to a request to speak about this story.
In his request to the supervisors, Sheriff Robert Luna also mentioned multiple benefits of working with the federal officers, which includes strengthening the agency’s investigative capacity and the flexibility to charge crimes federally, a status that offers much harsher penalties.
“The department will provide 10 task force officers for participation in the NCSSTF,” according to the agenda item for discussion Tuesday. “Subject to the availability of funding and legislative authorization, the FBI will reimburse the department the cost of overtime worked by nonfederal NCSSTF personnel assigned full-time to the NCSSTF, provided overtime expenses were incurred as a result of NCSSTF-related duties and subject to the provision and limitations set forth in a separate (agreement) to be executed in conjunction with this (memorandum of understanding). The total overtime reimbursed is not to exceed $22,155.25 per (task force officer) for federal fiscal year 2025.”
L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office issued a statement Monday afternoon regarding the agenda item.
“I welcome this collaboration and the additional federal resources that come with it, which strengthen our ability to keep North County communities safe,” she wrote, according to an email from Helen Chavez Garcia, Barger’s director of communications. “Partnerships like this ensure our Sheriff’s Department has the support it needs to protect residents and address serious crime.”
The request comes as the department has touted a 3% decrease overall in violent crime countywide, including homicide, which is down 12.5%, according to the LASD’s year-end data, which was announced in a Dec. 31 Nixle, but not yet published online.
The numbers also mentioned the LASD’s efforts to bolster its numbers.
“The department collaborated closely with the Board of Supervisors and received strong support to fund eight academy classes, graduating 401 deputies, with average class sizes increasing 29% over the prior year,” according to the Nixle. “The Guiding Recruits into Training, or GRIT, program dramatically reduced academy attrition from historical rates of 20% to 40% to less than 5% among participants.”
