It’s a Tuesday in Santa Clarita and to most of us that means it’s the relatively mundane lull between Monday’s catch up frenzy and Wednesday’s deadlines. But to Deputy Gerri McCorkle of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department it’s the same as every other day: anything can happen.

 

Granted, day shift tends to be a little quieter than evening, but as I slide into the passenger seat of McCorkle’s cruiser, I can’t help but imagine doing 90mph on Newhall Ranch with the sirens blaring, yelling some theatric code into the radio. Deputy McCorkle however, has other plans. Deputy McCorkle works public affairs for the Sheriff’s Department and our first stop today will be the Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce. “Why,” I wonder, “Is it being robbed?”

 

As it turns out, The Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Sheriffs to implement A Business Watch, which will be a dedicated effort by local businesses to make Santa Clarita a safer place. The program is designed to inform businesses of the latest crime trends and crime detection techniques. This is just one of the programs that the Sheriffs run within our community in an effort to be proactive in not only responding to crime, but actually preventing crime. And in doing so, McCorkle stresses that education is key. Here are some other interesting things she brought to my attention:

 

∙Crime is more common in areas where there is a lot of condensed housing, with frequent move in/out rates.

 

∙Crime, especially juvenile crime, increases in summertime. This is due mostly to the fact that children are out of school and unsupervised.

 

∙An estimated 90% of SCV Deputies are also residents of our town, and therefore feel personally responsible for the safety of the community.

 

    The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is responsible for the area roughly between the I-5/14 split and Gorman…that’s right, Gorman. In between the boundary lines there are some 250,000 people, all of which directly rely on a department that operates from the lone station on the corner of Valencia and Magic Mountain. It is with this duty that the Sheriff’s have relentlessly focused their efforts into planning and training for emergencies. For example, once a year they hold “Active Shooter” training in which they practice live scenarios that can include injured bystanders and hostage situations. With the recent school attacks in the news again, Deputy McCorkle revealed that the department has formulated a specific plan for each valley school in the event of an attack, and those plans undergo constant updates. The goal, she says, is to be able to react with a plan immediately. 

 

    While I ended my day not knowing what it’s like to respond code three to some perilous crime, it brings me far greater peace to know that I live in a place where that doesn’t happen with great frequency. It goes without saying that preventative efforts, along with continued emergency response training on behalf of our deputies is directly responsible for that peace of mind we get to enjoy everyday. “For that”, I tell Deputy McCorkle, “we are grateful.”

 

To find out more on the Sheriff’s Department in Santa Clarita please visit lasd.org. 

 

Jon Dell