Sheriff’s Substation Opens in Palmdale

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has opened a substation in Palmdale as it moves to expand its coverage of the rapidly growing Antelope Valley.

The substation, which will be dedicated today, was opened Feb. 15 in a shopping center, next to a bank, church and boarded-up school auditorium in the center of the city.

Cmdr. Mike Aranda said the 61 deputies assigned to the station will improve service in Palmdale and surrounding communities and ease crowding at the sheriff’s station in Lancaster, 10 miles to the north.

“The deputies will be able to spend more time patrolling instead of commuting,” Aranda said.

Sheriff’s officials said they have opened temporary substations in shopping centers elsewhere in the county, but not anywhere near the size of Palmdale’s 5,500-square-foot facility.

“Normally, we don’t put a sheriff’s station in a shopping center,” said Sharon Bunn, director of facility planning for the Sheriff’s Department. “It’s the largest one we have ever done.”

Sheriff’s officials opted for the shopping center site when they discovered that the $500,000 remodeling cost and the $5,500-a-month rent were less expensive than leasing land and modular buildings, Bunn said.

Before the Palmdale substation opened, 227 deputies worked at the Lancaster sheriff’s station. With the expansion into Palmdale, 16 additional deputies have been assigned to the Antelope Valley.

The station is open 24 hours a day and will serve 155,000 people in Palmdale and the communities of Acton, Aqua Dulce, Desert View Highlands, Lake Hughes, Leona Valley and Elizabeth Lake.

In March, another substation will open in Lake Los Angeles.

Aranda said it didn’t take long for deputies at the new substation to become busy. Twenty minutes after the station opened, someone came in to report a fire down the street.

County officials said $6 million has been set aside to purchase land for a permanent substation in Palmdale that is scheduled to open in 1995 or 1996.