STATION LEADER KNOWS ROPES LA BERGE A VETERAN LAWMAN.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Capt. Anthony La Berge has worked all over the Sheriff's Department, doing everything from keeping commuter trains safe to running a canine unit.

His new assignment, which he started at the beginning of the month, is to lead the department's Santa Clarita station.

``Every part of my career has given me something I can put in my tool box basically, to help me take on such an assignment like this,'' said La Berge, 43.

He has patrolled mean streets, trained deputies, investigated robberies, written reports and more. He knows what to ask of his deputies because he's done the work himself.

``If I hear excuses as to why they can't do this or that, I'll know whether it's a real excuse, a legitimate excuse, or if it's B.S., to put it lightly,'' he said.

La Berge, who was promoted to captain in 2005, comes to the Santa Clarita station from the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau, overseeing security on the Metro Green and Blue lines.

``Overall, he's a tremendous manager, has superb people skills,'' said Cmdr. Dan Finkelstein, who oversees transit services.

La Berge's late father was a French-Canadian who came to the United States to join the Air Force, and his mother, a Louisiana native, is African-American. It's from his father that La Berge got his first name, Jacques, although he goes by his middle name, Anthony.

The biracial La Berge likes to ``test'' visitors, showing them a 1954 picture of his father in the Air Force alongside other service members and asking them to identify his dad. Visitors often point to one of the African-American service members, instead of La Berge's white father, earning a chuckle from the sheriff's captain.

``I don't call it a joke; I just test them,'' he said. ``Just test their powers of observation.''

La Berge grew up in the San Fernando Valley and wanted to be a firefighter. But a back problem kept him from doing that, so he joined the Sheriff's Department in 1984.

Before the Transit Services Bureau, La Berge worked in the office of one of the department's chiefs. He has also worked in the Compton station and a few other stations, and in the jail system.

But his favorite assignment, which he did from 1996 to 2000, was heading a canine unit that tracked suspects. That was for the Special Enforcement Bureau, the sheriff's version of the SWAT Team.

The dogs found suspects hiding under cars, under houses, amid debris. On one call out, a dog found a suspect hiding in a doghouse who was wanted in the killing of a sheriff's deputy.

La Berge has lived in Canyon Country for 19 years, and he is married with two daughters. He sees the Santa Clarita Valley as an area in transition.

``It would be nice to say that the growth that this valley has encountered over the years brought in only the best of society, but that's not reality,'' La Berge said.

``So with that growth you have drug problems, you have some small gang problems. ... We have narcotics. You know methamphetamine use now is reaching all-time highs.''

To combat those problems, La Berge will head a staff of more than 200 sworn deputies and professional staff members.

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