Alternatives

Our Demands

Together, we are calling on the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale to cancel their contracts with the Sheriff and build a community-driven approach free from law enforcement harassment and violence. 

If you are committed to an alternative vision for public safety, we ask that you join us in amplifying our demands:

1. Cancel all Antelope Valley School Districts contracts with the LA County Sheriff’s Department. The AV Union High School District spends more than $1.8 million a year on a contract with the Sheriff’s Department to police our schools, and the smaller districts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Meanwhile, our AV schools are in disrepair, and in California, the ratio of counselors to students is 330 to 1, while the recommended ratio is 250 to 1. School Districts contracts should not be renewed, instead we want to see those funds reinvested in school counselors, librarians, wrap around services, and after school programs. 
2. Comply with the 2015 AV Settlement Agreement and open an investigation into the historical and ongoing law enforcement violence and white supremacist activities in the Antelope Valley.
   • Call on the CA Attorney General to include a special focus on LASD’s systemic violations of the constitutional rights of the community in the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster, and unincorporated communities of the Antelope Valley as part of the Attorney General’s January 2021 civil rights investigation into the LA County Sheriff’s Department.
   • Call on the U.S. DOJ to modify the 2015 Settlement Agreement to include meaningful enforcement mechanisms and consequences for 6 years of lack of compliance. 
   • Demand the LA County Board of Supervisors comply with the 2015 Settlement Agreement and stop using County Counsel to thwart compliance. The Board must review and report to the public on the lack of progress and compliance, and do something to hold the Sheriff accountable to the Settlement Agreement and the people of the AV.
3. Hold sheriff deputies accountable who murder and harass community members #SayTheirNamesAV. The community demands transparency and accountability for each instance of sheriff deputy violence and murder of community members. We will collect and retell the stories of all those murdered by sheriff deputies in the Antelope Valley over the last decades, support impacted families, and activate rapid response as incidents of law enforcement violence continue to occur in the community.
4. Cancel the Palmdale and Lancaster contracts with the LA County Sheriff’s Department. After decades of racist and violent policing by LA County sheriffs, and 6 years into a Settlement Agreement with the DOJ for such illegal conduct, LASD refuses to comply or change their policing practices. Meanwhile, Lancaster and Palmdale spend approximately $30 million annually for this unconstitutional policing. In the wake of the summer 2020 uprising in defense of Black lives, rising white supremacist activity in the region and the country, and ongoing murders of our community members by sheriff deputies, we call on city leaders to cancel both cities’ contracts with the LA County Sheriff Department. Our community deserves better.
5. Implement a new vision for Community Safety. Create a Civilian Office of Public Safety to address the vast majority of calls for police service, which are nonviolent and do not require an armed response. We envision a new infrastructure of community safety and problem-solving responders, alternative crisis responders, mental health clinicians, de-escalation experts and community health workers. We envision an Antelope Valley where law enforcement is removed from traffic control, school policing, and many other routine government services that could be performed by civilians, at lower cost and with more humane outcomes.

It’s time now to be courageous and take decisive action to create a system of public safety that is aligned with the experiences and vision of our communities in the Antelope Valley. 

Let’s envision a community beyond law enforcement. Let’s Cancel the Contract.