The Antelope Valley Times

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Palmdale Sheriff’s Station applying for OHV grant, public input sought

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Active since 2000, the local OHV team now includes one lieutenant, three sergeants and nine full-time deputies who use the Lancaster and Palmdale Sheriff’s stations and the Quartz Hill substation to deploy from and respond to OHV complaints and conduct routine patrols. [Image courtesy LASD]
PALMDALE – The Palmdale Sheriff’s Station is applying for a grant through California State Parks to fund its off-highway vehicle (OHV) enforcement team, authorities announced this week.

The process includes a 30-day period, from March 7 to April 3,  to allow the public to review and comment on the preliminary grant application submitted to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division.

The Palmdale Sheriff’s Station is encouraging residents to view the grant application and submit their comments and questions. The 2017 application can be viewed here.

Comments on the application must be received by April 3. The public may provide comments to both the Antelope Valley OHV team and the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division by emailing lasdohv@lasd.org and carbon copying OHVinfo@parks.ca.gov.

About the local Off-Highway Vehicle Enforcement Team

In order to tackle the high volume of off-highway vehicle complaints, the Palmdale Station OHV team was created in 2000, initially concentrating on issues within the city of Palmdale. The local OHV enforcement team now patrols Palmdale, Lancaster and all unincorporated county areas. Its largest area of responsibility lies in rural towns, including Acton, Agua Dulce, Antelope Acres, Leona Valley, Elizabeth Lake, Lake Hughes, Littlerock, Pearblossom, Llano, Lake Los Angeles and Wrightwood. These townships make up over 1,100 square miles of rural desert and mountain areas.

The Antelope Valley OHV team now includes one lieutenant, three sergeants and nine full-time deputies who use the Lancaster and Palmdale Sheriff’s stations and the Quartz Hill substation to deploy from and respond to OHV complaints and conduct routine patrols. OHV complaints are called in by the public to either Palmdale Station, Lancaster Station or the 5th District County Supervisor’s Office.

During the year 2016, the Palmdale and Lancaster sheriff’s stations received, responded to and handled 497 OHV-related calls for service. The amount of illegal riding contacts in 2016 resulted in 84 citations, 286 warnings, one felony arrest, seven misdemeanor arrests and 14 towed vehicles during the course of 67 deployments, according to the current grant application.

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32 comments for "Palmdale Sheriff’s Station applying for OHV grant, public input sought"

  1. There is a solution to this, simply open a large OHV area. Where at? In Hi Vista. The perfect area is at East Ave C (the border line fence of Edwards A.F.B.) to East Ave. G, and from 200th St. East to 260th East (County Line Rd.). This is 4 miles north to south, and 6 miles east to west of land that is 97% free of Joshua trees, and 98% free of lived in housing.

    • A relative of mine would love this since the land owned out there would then be bought by the state! Money for an almost worthless piece of dirt.

  2. This is a great idea. There are lots of bikers that we’ve seen from horseback. Not a good combination.

    • I agree the horses have to go if the bikers have to go. Private property is private property. Keep your damn horses and dirt bikes off of it.

  3. Instead of chasing down kids on motorcycles why not use this unit to get all the illegal dumpers! at least the riders arent trashing the desert like the dumpers are.

    • Again, not usually kids. I totally agree with you about the dumpers though. It is a disgrace with all the trash on the sides of roads and out in the riding areas. Makes it dangerous in some cases. I have only been able to call in one dumper that I caught but could not keep them there until the cops arrived.

  4. good luck to some 50yo fat duffer from the SD on a 4stroke 200 Yamaha catching a 14yo kid on a KX500….

  5. So whatever happened to all that grant money that LA county parks and rec. received to open an OHV park in Littlerock? Whose pocket did that land in? I guess with all the money the solar farms are coming into the valley with, our Green sticker fees don’t stand a chance so we have legal place to ride close by. I’m all for law enforcement, and spark arrestors, but really?

    • Did the money get used to reopen LACR MX? That is down in the pit and every so often I see trailers with bikes go in and sometimes an ambulance too.

  6. In the government grant site there are millions of dollars just waiting for agencies to claim funds for the sheriff and fire department to better their equipment. The money is waiting if you don’t claim another town will. Why ask the public for input just do it.

  7. Waste of money. Who would not want $100k a year to ride a bike off road? The statistics promoted are ill conceived and have no direct correlation OHV patrolling. They show up from the streets when called. Simple as that. Get past the smoke and mirrors.

  8. yea they got me last week for riding my bike on my property..scandless ass cops got nuthen better to do.

  9. Palmdale Sheriff’s shouldn’t put all their confidence in California Parks and Recreation. They barely have enough to operate their budget items. Apply instead for “COPS” Community Oriented Policing Grants through DOJ. I applied for a 150,000.00 grant in 1999 and received the money, which came from the Drug Czar budget.

  10. I appreciate your unit and applaud your efforts in keeping these areas safer and having less damage to natural and historic resources. I wish other agencies Federal, State, County and municipal would duplicate this initiative in their specific jurisdictions. I visit this area often with friends and family and your presence and protection of the desert environment is worthy of this initiative. Your efforts will help keep this area in a condition so that future generations will enjoy it the same way I do.

  11. well here’s my openion i just got back from el marage lake witch i beleve is in san berndeno county i have a ohv that cost me a hundred or more to register and i cant ride the damn thing in my own county i have to pay other countys to ride my ohv. i mean we have thousands of miles of trails in the antolope vally if these people were smart they would open up some of this land for ohv vehicles and keep some of that money for our county. but knall these shariff’s want to keep all that beautiful seenry for them selfs cause there the only ones get to ride on the land cheaseing kids and giving them tickets. so no we dont need more ohv police we need ohv places to ride in LA county.

  12. … oh, so now, County Sheriff’s want free off-road vehicles for their amusement and merriment? Of course, they want us paying for it, right? Well, why the heck not? After all, Los Angeles is a sanctuary city, right? So, why not just throw in the towel? Be my guest, why not go right ahead, finally be done with it, formally change the name of Los Angeles County to Mexifornia before bankrupting it once and for all, adorning our sheriffs deputies in mansions, Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, private jets, pleasure-craft, and all off-road vehicles the desire! Anything they want! Anytime anyone says otherwise? Line them up against the wall, shoot them, like they do in Mexico –

    • Do you always lose track when you start ranting? This was like a four year old pulling the trigger on an automatic weapon…spraying wildly in all directions until you just lost your grip completely. Almost makes me wish you just brought talking points from the nut job sites that cater to angry people like you. At least you would have been coherent.

    • I laugh at all the idiots commenting “sanctuary city” in every post. What’s next? It’s the “mexicans” fault that we have global warming. Don is the definition of idiot.

  13. So we arrest or ticket kids having fun in the desert using funds paid for by this same riders in their OHV fees. All because of a few complaints. So then these kids have nothing better to do and end up doing drugs and causing troubles in the streets.. Trust me if they are riding, they won’t be able to afford drugs..

    • Kids? Like the sometimes drunk idiot on my street that takes his young children for rides without helmets on the street and empty lots between houses kicking up dust.
      Or the idiots that run stop signs because they feel they do not have to follow the road rules while on quads.
      Not kids, adults with little thought to safety.

  14. 497 and how many officers on the task force seems like a waste of money. We have worse crime to deal with in the av.

    • Thirteen. And it seems like this grant basically pays for them with money the state wouldn’t give otherwise so they are extra enforcement that doesn’t cost against the basic budget.

      • Timmy
        We never did this in 60 s or 70 s why. Now and these Deputies, can’t ride half of them they get hurt we pay so 14 ur old kid can ride better them there. Need to get on street racers

        • Well, in the 60s and 70s there were darn few people, kids, or bikes to worry about here. One of the advantages of living at a wide spot in a desert road to nowhere, if dirt bikes are your thing. I prefer city life myself, now, though I had my crash and burn days when I was young too.

  15. It’s the dang desert, Let them Ride. Before the entire area is layed up with solar sites.

  16. THIS IS BS I HAVE BEEN RIDDING SINCE I WAS 5 AS LONG AS THE ATV HAS AN OFF ROAD GREEN STICKER WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO RIDE GET A LIFE PEOPLE

  17. There is a lot of off duty fire department and police offers riding out there and I don’t see them stop except for a hand shake carry a badage and ur OK !!!

    • The article stated 287 warnings vs 84 citiations and only 8 total arrests. I’m sure those warnings weren’t all off duty cops and firefighters. We rode dirt bikes growing up in the unincorporated areas of the AV and had to realize some areas are private property even through they seem like wide open fields.

      Many of the times the deputies are making checks for installed and functioning spark arrestors. If the bike is compliant then the rider is on his way. Many of our large brush fires over the years have been started by off road riders sparking a fire.

      • I’m equally sure that none of the 84 citations were issued to free pass badge holders, no matter how egregious their behavior was. If I’m not doing anything illegal and get pulled over, the cop will spend an hour of my time trying to find something to write me up for because I don’t kiss his ass. A cop gets pulled over weaving drunkenly down the road at twenty over the limit he gets an unofficial warning that isn’t even documented.

      • “Many of our large brush fires over the years have been started by off road riders sparking a fire.”

        Really? Want to prove what you said? More fires have been started by lawnmowers, lightning and utility workers than “off road riders”.

        • I’ve been a firefighter for nearly 30 years and know of at least 25 fires, large and small started by bike riders. I should have clarified it’s been fired not just in the SCV or AV, but in fires we’ve worked on in Southern California.
          There’s a reason for CVC 38366 and simply installing an inexpensive spark arrestor shouldn’t be an issue. Many OHV and dual sport bikes already have them installed.