The Orange County Sheriff’s Department came into existence on August 1, 1889, when a proclamation of the state legislature separated the southern portion of Los Angeles County and created Orange County.  The entire department consisted of Sheriff Richard Harris and Deputy James Buckley, with an operating budget of $1,200 a year and a makeshift jail in the rented basement of a store in Santa Ana.  They served a sparsely populated county of 13,000 residents, scattered throughout isolated townships and settlements.  The problems faced by the first sheriff were typical for a frontier county – tracking down outlaws, controlling vagrancy, and attempting to maintain law and order across 782 square miles of farmland and undeveloped territory.

     But the county was expanding, and the department grew with it.  The Spurgeon Square Jail was opened by Sheriff Joe Nichols in 1897, and the Orange County Courthouse followed in 1901. Sheriff Theo Lacy (the second and fourth sheriff of Orange County, who served from 1890-1894 and 1899-1911) was able to move from borrowed office space in Santa Ana to a dedicated headquarters in the courthouse that remained in operation until 1924. 

     When he took office in 1911, Sheriff Charles Ruddock commanded a staff of eight full-time deputies and jailers, serving a county of nearly 34,000 citizens.  But the county’s frontier past returned to haunt it on December 16, 1912, when Undersheriff Robert Squires became the first member of the department to be killed in the line of duty while part of a posse attempting to apprehend a violent fugitive.  

     The county’s growing population brought new challenges.  Most of the county had outlawed liquor by the time Sheriff Calvin Jackson took office in 1915.  Raids of “blind pig” businesses that served as fronts for illegal liquor sales were commonplace.  When Congress passed the 18th Amendment in 1920, Prohibition became the law of the land.  Suppressing illegal liquor operations became a major focus for the department over the next decade. 

     By the time Sheriff Sam Jernigan took office in 1923, rum runners and bootleggers were commonplace along the coastline and in Orange County’s harbors, using them as a base of operation for smuggling Canadian liquor into the country.  Thanks to Jernigan’s diligence, many of them ended up serving time in the new county jail on Sycamore Street in Santa Ana, a building that would serve as OCSD’s main jail and headquarters for the next forty-four years.  Jernigan remained in office until the end of the decade.  By 1930, the department had grown to include eighteen full-time personnel with an operating budget of $49,582.  The county’s population was approaching 119,000, over half of which was scattered across a mostly rural landscape. 

     Sheriff Logan Jackson assumed office in 1931, and for the next eight years guided the department through a turbulent decade.  The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 caused widespread damage throughout the county, especially in Santa Ana.  In 1938, a week of intense rain overflowed the Santa Ana River, causing a massive flood that caused over $30 million in damage.  The sheriff also had to deal with the Citrus Riots of 1936, an agricultural labor dispute that led to a strike and subsequent disturbance so large that Sheriff Jackson swore in over four hundred special deputies to help control the violence.  But Jackson’s term in office also saw advancements for the department, such as an expansion of the Sycamore Jail that included the county’s first radio dispatch center.  One of his final acts as sheriff was to implement the wearing of uniforms and a standardized badge for all thirty of his deputies.

     Sheriff Jesse Elliott replaced Jackson in 1939, just as the Depression was ending and the county once again began to prosper.  This peaceful time was cut short by the outbreak of World War II in 1941, which created challenges unlike any others in department history.  Most of Orange County’s peace officers left for war, leaving the department critically understaffed.  This was made worse by the fact that in addition to his normal responsibilities, the sheriff was now required to assist with mandatory civil defense measures such as air raid drills and blackouts, as well as help police the seven wartime military bases within the county borders.  Elliott suddenly found himself responsible for twice as many duties with only a fraction of his former staff to carry them out.  To meet this need, he formed the Sheriff’s Emergency Reserve, which eventually became the department’s current Reserve Bureau. 

     In 1946, former deputy James Musick came home from the war and successfully ran for the office of sheriff, assuming command in 1947.  He would serve as sheriff for the next twenty-eight years – the longest term in department history.  When he took office, the county was still mostly rural, with a population of 216,000 served by a department of only seventy-six.  During Musick’s administration, a number of divisions and facilities were commissioned that remain active to this day.  He implemented the county’s first crime lab, its first Peace Officer’s Training Center (now known as the Katella Facility), and the nation’s first law enforcement Explorer post.  The 1960s saw the construction of the Orange County Industrial Farm (later renamed the James Musick Jail Facility), the Theo Lacy Facility, and the headquarters and central jails still in use today.  In response to the civil unrest of the late 1960’s, Musick formed the Emergency Action Group Law Enforcement (EAGLE) team, a group of deputies with specialized training in various riot control and specialized tactics.  Although the team disbanded several years later, certain platoons evolved into the modern-day SWAT, Hazardous Devices, and Mounted Patrol units.  The department grew even larger when the Coroner’s Office merged with it in 1971.  By the time Musick retired in 1974, the county had expanded to a rapidly urbanizing population of over 1,400,000, with the department having grown to a staff of over 900.

     Musick’s handpicked successor was Brad Gates, who became sheriff in 1975.  The department continued its rapid expansion during his administration, with the merging of two more agencies – the Orange County Harbor Patrol and the Stanton Police Department.  In response to severe jail overcrowding, the Intake Release Center was opened in 1988, completing the modern-day Central Jails Complex.  Gates also established the Air Support Bureau and created the Laser Village tactical training center, as well as the county’s first DNA laboratory.  The continuing urbanization of the county resulted in several cities incorporating and becoming contract patrol areas.  Gates also steered the department through the challenges of a severe county bankruptcy in 1994.   By the time he retired in 1999, the department had grown to over 3000 members.

      Sheriff Michael Carona took office in 1999, and soon oversaw the merger of the Orange County Marshal’s Department (his former agency) with OCSD.  His term brought additional department expansion, including a modernized Katella Facility and a new OCSD Academy in Tustin.  Patrol cars were equipped with mobile computers, and anti-terrorism units were formed in response to the events of September 11, 2001.  Although he enjoyed an initial surge of popularity due to the department’s expert handling of such high-profile cases as the Samantha Runnion abduction and murder, Carona’s time in office did not end well.  He and former members of his executive staff were indicted on multiple corruption charges in 2007, and he resigned and was convicted in 2008. 

     His replacement, retired L.A. Sheriff’s Commander Sandra Hutchens, was appointed by the county Board of Supervisors after a nationwide search for a suitable candidate.  

     Sheriff Hutchens continued to expand the department after assuming office, reorganizing the entire agency and creating new branches such as the Homeland Security Division, a unified command for the various bureaus responsible for the county’s security.  However, the sheriff was soon faced with the crisis of a nationwide recession that caused the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  This caused massive cuts to the department’s budget, and made it necessary to streamline the entire agency.  In spite of these problems, Hutchens has continued to implement new programs and procedures to not only cope with the financial crisis, but to ensure that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is prepared to meet whatever challenges the future may bring.