The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale and Lancaster Stations patrol the largest geographical area within Los Angeles County.

They cover an area of approximately 1,300 square miles and serve approximately 340,000 community members. They patrol the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster and all the unincorporated county areas in the Antelope Valley. The largest area of our responsibility lies in rural towns surrounding both cities. Those areas include: Acton, Agua Dulce, Leona Valley, Elizabeth Lake, Lake Hughes, Green Valley, Littlerock, Pearblossom, Llano, Lake Los Angeles, Quartz Hill, Antelope Acres, Fairmont, Hi Vista, Wrightwood and areas of the Angeles National Forest. These townships make up over 1,100 square miles of rural desert and mountain areas.

In order to tackle the high volume of off-highway vehicle complaints, the Palmdale Station Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) team was created in the year 2000, initially concentrating on the issues within the city of Palmdale by Palmdale Station personnel. Over several years the team’s area of patrol expanded to cover the entire area of Northern Los Angeles County, therefore, the OHV team has increased in size accordingly.

The team added personnel from Lancaster Station and Community Partnerships Bureau in order to patrol more frequently and effectively. The Antelope Valley OHV team now consists of one lieutenant, three sergeants and nine deputies. They currently use both stations and the Quartz Hill Substation to deploy from and respond to OHV complaints and conduct routine patrols.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Community Partnerships Bureau is a county funded unit and concentrates on quality of life issues in the unincorporated areas. The OHV team deploys throughout the week to handle OHV complaints, which are called in by the public to either Palmdale Station, Lancaster Station or the 5th District County Supervisor’s Office.

The Antelope Valley OHV team, through Palmdale Sheriff’s Station, is currently applying for a grant through the California State Parks and Recreation Division. The Grants and Cooperative Agreement Program allows for a 30-day public review and comment period. This period provides an opportunity for the public to review the preliminary applications submitted to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division for consideration during the current grant cycle. We encourage people to view the application and submit comments and questions. The Antelope Valley State Parks and Recreation Off Highway Vehicle Grant Application can be viewed at Palmdale.lasd.org under Featured Services/Off Road Enforcement Program.

The comments on the applications must be received between March 6, 2018, and April 2, 2018. The public may provide comments to both the Antelope Valley OHV team and the OHMVR Division by emailing: lasdohv@lasd.org and carbon copying OHVinfo@parks.ca.gov.

To complete a survey to help the community and the Sheriff’s Department better understand relations between residents and law enforcement, visit the following link: www.tinyurl.com/avcs14