Sheriff Sandra Hutches was the featured speaker last week at the Orange County Forum, a non-profit, non-partisan educational current affairs forum for leaders and headline makers in Orange County.  More than 200 attended the luncheon on Wednesday at the Hilton across from John Wayne Airport.

Here is some of what she told them:

Sheriff Hutchens began with some facts about the Department.

It is the second largest Sheriff’s Department in California.

It is the fifth largest Sheriff’s Department in the United States.

The Department has a $700 million annual budget and 4,000 employees.  We serve 12 contract cities, the Orange County Transportation Authority, Superior Court, John Wayne Airport and three harbors.

Our jail system is the second largest in the state, the eighth largest in the nation. Of the inmates we hold, 80 percent are charged with felonies and held in facilities designed for county misdemeanors.

We have a cross designation program with Immigration Customs Enforcement that enables our Deputies to screen for illegal immigrants in our jail. To date, 7,000 have to detained for action by ICE.  The program is a success. We are not able to track once they go to ICE. Of the 7,000, 4,400 are felons. We have been successful.

Our crime lab is one of the leading facilities in the country for DNA.

The Department has 230 reserves and 430 Professional Service Responders. 

“The PSR’s volunteered 20,000 hours in fiscal year 07-08. That is a 100 percent increase over a 3-year period,” Sheriff Hutchens said.  “You’ve heard about badges. Our PSRs are a wonderful group of people. They are doctors, lawyers, college professors.  I decided to take the badges not because I do not value their service, I took them because of an attorney general’s opinion.  The people of Orange County want their Sheriff to follow the law. “

She then described some of the community programs that help keep the crime rates low in our contract cities.

“ It’s about programs. We keep the children off the streets. We have  a lower crime rate.”

Sheriff Hutchens said she has been busy in her first three months in office.  [more]

The executive staff has been reorganized.

A jail audit is underway.

“ What I asked was that in view of the Chamberlain investigation, look at everything we do. We want to make sure we do all we are required to do,” she said. “I expect the report in late October, but if they find something that needs to be changed immediately, they are to let me know about it. We are getting interim reports.”

“We are also looking to hold people accountable for what they do,” Sheriff Hutchens said. “There was an employee survey by the previous sheriff. A high percentage of the employees  are proud of the Department. That is a good thing. But an overwhelming number of people felt that people were not held accountable. They want people who don’t want to do their job out of the Department. I hear a lot of enthusiasm for accountability in the Department.”

“The County Board of Supervisors has hired an executive director for the Office of Independent Review. If there is a deputy involved shooting or a use of excessive force, we will bring in the OIR,” she said.

Sheriff Hutchens said she wants the public to know what is going on the in Department.

“ We’re being very transparent, we’ve opened our doors. I have been interviewed by the press and I shall continue to the interviewed by the press for good news and bad.  We will make mistakes but the difference will be that I am accountable for those mistakes. I am accountable to the public. And I will hold my employees accountable.”

She has already found a great deal of satisfaction during her time as Sheriff.

“I’ve seen a lot of great work since I became Sheriff,” she said. 

The kidnapping of Ryan Ramos, taken by his father after his father shot Ryan’s mother, ended in the youngster’s safe return. Fifty investigators went to work while the rest of the Department worked the 4th of July details. Virtually everybody  in the Department worked that weekend. The investigators put on pressure through many means to  literally drive Ramos to a place where he had to leave the boy at a church.

“We went to the mother in the hospital and said, ‘we got Ryan back.’ We told her he’s okay,” Sheriff Hutchens recounted. “She said that’s not enough, I want to see him.”
The boy was returned to his mother with all speed possible.

“We have a PSR who flew his own plane on his own dime  to take our investigators to Juarez,” Sheriff Hutchens said. “He brought the boy back just as quickly as possible, without him having to wait for a commercial flight.

The Saddleback Forum was the first time both major party Presidential candidates met in the same room in public. It was also the first time Sheriff Hutchens had the opportunity to see the Department gear up for a national event and coordinate with a long list of other public safety agencies.

Both candidates were well protected.

“Protestors were able to peacefully protest with without disrupting the forum,” the sheriff added.

It doesn’t take a nationwide manhunt or a Presidential forum to impress the sheriff. Two deputies in south county managed to do that all on their own.

“Two of our deputies rescued a woman trying to commit suicide on a freeway overpass,” Sheriff Hutchens said. “Those two deputies literally held her hands. If she fell, they would have fallen. These deputies are heroes. “

“When people ask me why I came out of retirement, well, it was to work with people like these.”

Another controversial  issue is CCWs, or concealed weapons permits.

“I support the Second Amendment. I follow the law. The people of Orange County want a Sheriff who will follow the law. If there is good cause, I will give a CCW. The definition, according to a 1977 Attorney General opinion is that you must show you are at risk and law enforcement can’t handle the risk,” Sheriff Hutchens explained.

“If they change the law, I will support it. You don’t want a Sheriff who legislates from her office any more than you want judges who legislate from the bench,” she said. “I will enforce the law equally, respect civil rights, provide security and protection at businesses and homes.”

There were some questions from the audience and those included:

Q: what surprised you the most coming to the office?

A   “I focused on what I saw n the newspaper. It focused on the court case and the indictment. I found that inside the Department things were stalled, understandably. People were very concerned that they did not know who to trust, who to believe. We have a lot of work to do on policy and procedures to bring us into the 21st Century. “

Q: What do the deputies want us to know about them?

A: They were not part of what went on at the top. They are doing their job. I’ve been to our contract cities and I have no complaints about are Department is serving those communities. The deputies are proud of what they do. They want your trust. Their heart is in their work.