Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Captain Justin Diez hosted a virtual town hall for Santa Clarita residents Thursday afternoon.

The meeting was open to the public and featured both Villanueva and Diez fielding questions on a variety of topics from those in attendance, including the impact of county budget cuts, recent calls from activists to defund the police and diversity on the force.

Sheriff Villanueva opened by noting the unique challenges the department faces at this moment, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the financial pressure as a result of budget cuts.

“The economy, when it takes a downturn, obviously the coffers at the national level, state level, county level and local level will also suffer likewise, but we still have to provide that safety for everyone,” Villanueva said. “So how we do it in these trying times will be a challenge, but we’re up to it, we’ve survived challenges in the past.”

While the department as a whole is likely to feel the squeeze of budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year, Diez assured that the local station’s finances remain in good health.

“As far as the budget specifically hitting the Santa Clarita station, I can’t speak for the rest of the department, but our station is in a very good place right now,” Diez said. “Not only is that because of the Sheriff’s support, but certainly the support from the City of Santa Clarita as well.”

The conversation turned to more recent events, including the calls from activists to defund law enforcement agencies in favor of funding alternative approaches to public safety that they argue are better equipped to deal with some of the challenging scenarios deputies are presented with, such as mental health crises or domestic disputes.

“Law enforcement in America is the only venue, the only mechanism that you can get 24 hour service and will respond to anything seven days a week, 24/7, and oftentimes, law enforcement does respond to things that aren’t generally law enforcement matters,” Diez said. “So there’s no doubt that we do respond quite a bit because we’re the only real entity that is even available to do that.”

While Diez does acknowledge that there are non-law enforcement situations that deputies respond to, shifting those responsibilities onto other entities is a long-term plan that can’t be solved immediately.

The Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station itself was one of the locations of one of the recent demonstrations, and Diez was asked if any local policies would change in response to the showing.

“Our policies are in a constant state of revision,” Diez said. “We’re always looking for ways to improve policies. We’re constantly re-evaluating what we’re doing, how we’re doing it. We definitely take community input all the time.”

Diez encouraged those with feedback, whether negative or positive, to reach out to the station and ask for the watch commander.

A major topic of the demonstrations that have taken place across the nation has been the use of force by law enforcement, which was touched on in the town hall meeting.

“We can say that the Sheriff’s department has been at the forefront for the reform in terms of the use of force and a lot of our policies are adopted across the nation,” Villanueva said.

One of the higher profile demands towards law enforcement agencies has been the implementation of eight use of force policies put forward by the “8-Can’t-Wait” campaign, which Villanueva went through in detail, noting that these policies are already in place at the Sheriff’s Department.

Policies that the L.A. Sheriff’s Department currently have in effect include:

• Bans on chokeholds and strangleholds
• Requiring de-escalation
• Duty to intervene
• Bans on shooting at moving vehicles
• Having a ‘Use of Force Continuum’

The policies from 8 Can’t Wait that Los Angeles does not yet have are:

• Requiring warning before shooting
• Requiring exhausting all alternatives before shooting
• Requiring comprehensive reporting

Ed. Note: The above information comes from the 8 Can’t Wait database.

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