Letter from the Sheriff
We are a Team
I began my law enforcement career in 1976 as a secretary. I was proud of my role and my contribution to the organization because I knew I was doing my part to assist the Sheriff's Department in serving out our mission.
In the Orange County Sheriff's Department we have more than 2,041 professional staff filling 159 different job classifications and 1,631 sworn deputies filling eight job classifications. We also have 230 Reserve Deputies and 470 Professional Service Responders who augment the services we provide each and every day. Sworn or professional staff - we each have a specific role in our mission to provide professional and responsive law enforcement services to the residents and businesses of Orange County.
One of the seven members of my Executive Command Staff is a civilian and seven of my 21 Department Directors are civilians.
We are a team.
Our professional staff has a diverse list of responsibilities such as protecting public buildings, serving as bailiffs in civil courts, and supervising inmate work crews in the jails. Professional staff calculates our paychecks, sifts for evidence at crime scenes and analyzes evidence in the crime lab. Our professional staff maintains and programs our computers, builds networks, purchases our patrol cars and body armor, answers our phones - dispatching calls for service, and finds the money we need to fulfill our mission.
We are a diverse organization that must rely on the talents and expertise of a broad range of individuals in order to be successful. We, as a professional organization, cannot tolerate differential treatment based on the position one holds or the uniform one wears. Every single employee and volunteer is essential to the success of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
This is not a matter of policy, but a matter of human decency and respect.
Both I and the Command Staff expect all members of the Orange County Sheriff's Department to treat each other with respect and to work in collaboration in fulfilling our collective mission. We will not tolerate anything less.
SANDRA HUTCHENS
Sheriff-Coroner