RESPONSE TIMES ARE IMPROVING SERVICE CALLS BETTER SINCE MARCH.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Even with county budget cuts and a sharp increase in calls for service, the Palmdale and Lancaster sheriff's stations have improved response times to outlying areas, officials said.

Officials still want improvements, but said they are pleased with the latest reports that show deputies patrol Palmdale 93.67 percent of the time the county requires, and Lancaster, 84.58 percent.

``These numbers, since our first March reports at least, have improved a lot, but they could still get better,'' said Jean Huston, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

In March, Lancaster reported patrolling its unincorporated areas 77.9 percent of the required time while Palmdale was at just 67.83 percent for its areas.

Antonovich asked in March for monthly reports from the county Sheriff's Department because of numerous, long-standing complaints about lack of service and lengthy waits for deputies in outlying communities, officials said.

The Sheriff's Department is contracted to provide a specific number of hours to the cities it serves. Palmdale contracts the department for 11,200 hours of service, while Lancaster contracts for 10,300 hours.

The service time expected for unincorporated areas was determined by the amount of staff at each station not assigned to fulfill the city of Palmdale's and Lancaster's contracts.

Response times for both cities' unincorporated areas also saw a marked improvement, officials said.

``Routinely, we were seeing over an hour for response times in the unincorporated areas, but it got much better,'' Huston said.

The response times were broken into three types of calls - emergencies, priorities and routine.

In March, emergency responses for Lancaster's unincorporated areas were as high as 44 minutes but dropped to 8.4 minutes by the last report. Priority calls took as long as 92 minutes in March but took less than 17 minutes by June. Routine calls sometimes took as long as six hours for deputies to respond in March, but by June's reports, that number had dropped to just 89.6 minutes.

Huston also acknowledged that some of the numbers included in March's totals for Lancaster may have been skewed because of confusion in completing the report.

In Palmdale's unincorporated areas, responses to emergency calls took 12.4 minutes on average but were down to 11.6 by June. Priority calls dropped from 24 minutes to 21.1 minutes in June, and routine calls went from 65.7 minutes in March to 57.7 minutes in June.

``The sheriff said in the beginning of all this that anything over an hour is much to long for routine calls,'' Huston said. ``Palmdale has managed to get under that one-hour mark.''

Lancaster and Palmdale sheriff's officials say the reports highlight the need for adequate staffing and the uniqueness of the Antelope Valley's sprawling unincorporated areas.

Sheriff's and county officials continue to meet to try to determine how best to improve responses. Huston said the meetings and the report results show the need for improvements and that those improvements are being made.