Remote Sheriff’s Office to Extend Hours

Responding to requests from the town council, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich announced Thursday that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station here will be staffed seven days a week with extended hours beginning in September.

“This is a service issue,” said Alis Clausen, a spokeswoman for the supervisor. “It’s so people can go there before and after work to do business.”

The increased expenses of the station in the tiny desert community in northern Los Angeles County will be paid with $25,000 in Antonovich’s discretionary funds, Clausen said.

Since 1992, a lone community service officer has been available at the satellite station eight hours a day from Monday through Friday, taking crime reports and performing minor tasks, Clausen said.

The new schedule will keep the station open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Clausen said.

Deputies working in the area will also use the facility to write reports or interview witnesses.

The unincorporated area has always been patrolled by sheriff’s deputies, Clausen said. But residents needing services available only at Sheriff’s Department stations had to travel about 20 miles to Palmdale or Lancaster.

In May, Antonovich met with members of the town council, an advisory body, who urged him to increase office hours at the Lake Los Angeles satellite station.

The station will still handle only relatively minor business, she said. Incarcerations and fingerprinting, among other tasks, will continue to be handled only at the Lancaster or Palmdale stations.