By Reece Sisto, Science and Technology Content Strategist
On September 17, 2025, we proudly joined with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) to release two new Justice Navigator Assessments (JNAs) for the Lancaster and Palmdale Stations. This joint rollout event marked an important milestone in our more than three-year partnership with LASD, rooted in a shared commitment: making public safety systems in the Antelope Valley work better for everyone.
Justice Navigator Assessments combine rigorous data analysis with community-driven insights to illuminate where disparities exist in policing and to chart pathways for improvement. Together with LASD and local stakeholders, we’ve been working to translate these findings into tangible steps toward equity, safety, and trust.
The rollout event itself broke the mold. “We built a two-part experience consisting of a small group walkthrough of each report…and a resource fair staffed by CPE, LASD, Evident Change, and community advisory councils from each station,” said Joelle Lee-Silcox, Senior Implementation Strategist at CPE. “Attendees received clear updates on policy changes, a deep dive into the Justice Navigator methods, face time with captains, [and more]. The reports were the baseline and the event was the bridge, [both] bringing [knowledge and accountability] into one room so hard questions could be asked and answered.”
A Clear Baseline for Progress
The Lancaster and Palmdale JNAs cover the years 2018–2022. While LASD has since implemented new policies, improved reporting and oversight, and expanded mental health response teams, the data highlight areas that still demand attention and provide a crucial baseline against which to measure the impact of these reforms.
Among the most significant findings in Lancaster:
- Over half (52%) of all people subjected to force by deputies were Black, despite Black residents comprising only 18% of Lancaster’s population during the study period;
- Deputies were 4.7 times more likely to use force on Black people than White people;
- Vehicle stop data also show disparities: Black drivers were searched more often than White drivers but contraband was found less frequently, suggesting over-policing rather than effective enforcement.
The assessment further revealed that 90% of calls for service did not involve threats to bodily harm or property, raising important questions about when armed responses are necessary and where alternative, community-centered responses could be more effective.
Palmdale’s JNA shows similar trends:
- Thirty-six percent of those subjected to force were Black, though Black residents made up just 11% of the population;
- Deputies were 2.9 times more likely to use force on Black residents than White residents;
- Vehicle stop data echo Lancaster’s: Black and Latinx drivers were searched more often, but deputies found contraband less frequently than when searching White drivers.
Calls for service again revealed opportunities to rethink public safety deployment: 89% of calls did not involve threats of bodily or property harm. “Nuisances” and “Public Assistance” alone accounted for nearly three-quarters of service calls—the kinds of community needs that may be better addressed by non-police responders.
Our impact going forward is clear. As Lt. Melynie Rivers of LASD put it, “[these reports] made our department take a keen look: how did [CPE] collect this data and how can we now collect data for the community in a transparent way? We developed dashboards with real time numbers to help keep us accountable and the community informed. And guess what? CPE started that.”
Moving Forward Together
The disparities identified in these reports are not new to Antelope Valley residents, but by documenting them with precision, we hope to provide LASD a roadmap for accountability and action. They set a baseline to track the progress already underway at LASD stations (new policies, enhanced supervision, expanded mental health responses, and now new data transparency technologies) and create space for Black and Brown voices in shaping what public safety should look and feel like in their community. “This is a really good kick off for conversations we need to have about safety and justice in the Antelope Valley. I’m looking forward to more from CPE and LASD,” said community member Wafiqah Shah.
We celebrate these reports not as endpoints, but as tools for transformation. In recent years, LASD’s Lancaster and Palmdale stations have made significant advancements in non-police response to mental health emergencies, reducing overall use of force, and observed disparities in their pedestrian stops. You can learn more about these and other departmental racial equity efforts in the Departmental Context tabs of both the Lancaster and Palmdale reports.
The path to fairer, safer, and more trusted public safety systems will be built collaboratively—through continued partnership between LASD, their local communities, and organizations like ours. Together, we can ensure that public safety in cities like Lancaster and Palmdale and across Los Angeles County works better for everyone.
Individuals like you power all of our work. Consider donating today to support programming like this and other critical public safety redesign work.