Annika Bernsen
Orange County Register
Tustin, California — Orange County Sheriff’s Department The company on Thursday morning unveiled a new $110 million technology center that will be a one-stop shop for communications and technology operations.
Located in TustinThe centre will feature a real-time communications section, a counter-terrorism centre, a media briefing room, shared office space for trainees and developers, and a maintenance area for police vehicles.
“We are driving a culture change in how we use technology and look forward to seeing the solutions-focused ways we prevent crime, solve cases and improve the quality of life for our residents,” said Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.
Burns said the department will now be able to “leverage synergies with technologies that weren’t necessarily available to us before.”
The federal partnership for all dispatch, emergency communications, crime and hazardous materials detection services will operate exclusively from this new center.
The center also consolidates three OCSD divisions under one roof — Technology, Operational Support and Intelligence, and Special Operations — which “strengthens our ability to protect our community,” Burns said.
“Having all of this in one place allows us to operate more efficiently,” says Burns. “We have information about outcomes and immediate response to incidents as they happen in real time.”
One of the new features the technology center will offer is the ability for law enforcement to “access” public and private cameras from entities that partner with police departments across the county.
Through an interface called Fusus, the Sheriff’s Department can connect to cameras from partnering cities, schools and private businesses to better assess potential crimes and emergencies. To participate in the program, the business or city must own Fusus technology, OCSD spokesperson Jaimee Blashaw said. With permission from both parties, OCSD can access and use the cameras as needed.
The two Waterloo Police Department officers are in stable condition and are expected to recover.
San Francisco police and other agencies use similar Draeger devices to detect a variety of drugs, but the new device is the first the company has designed to detect fentanyl.
“[The] “The shift from arrest to protecting lives is commendable,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “I [am] I’m proud of our team for getting her to safety.”
Cedar Hill Police pursued the suspect on the highway, where he opened the driver’s side door and fired at least one shot at officers as he continued to flee.
For example, if there is an emergency like a school shooting, OCSD’s technology department can connect to cameras on campus to find where emergency personnel are needed, Burns said.
OCSD already has a partnership with Lake Forest, which is using license-plate reading cameras throughout the city, as well as a new crime data reporting system that will give OCSD real-time insight into local crime trends, said Lake Forest spokesman Jonathan Bortzke.
In addition to all the latest technology in the building, the center also houses decades of OCSD memorabilia.
Part of the building’s basement level features displays of items from the police department’s more than 100-year history, including an original replica of a county jail cell and a 1962 Chrysler Newport patrol car. The new center is not open to the public, so the memorabilia room is only available to trainees and those invited by the department, but Burns said it may be open by appointment in the future.
The 120,000-square-foot building was purchased in 2022 and was fully funded with taxpayer funds.
“I’m a big believer in taxpayer money being invested wisely,” Burns said, “We don’t waste money, we don’t have money that’s wasted, so every dollar that we spend in the budget is a dollar that you can’t get somewhere else.”
But the memorabilia museum was privately funded through donations of about $750,000, and the goal is to raise $900,000 total for the space, a goal Burns said they are close to reaching.
The building has been open for just over a month and is already in use. The conference rooms are: The pro-Palestinian camp was cleared on May 15. .
“Intelligence analysts and police officers would come in and get real-time footage from UC Irvine cameras,” Burns said. “The center was very active at the time.”
On Thursday, June 27, OCSD hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony with local community leaders including Orange County CEO Frank Kim and Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Doug Chaffee.
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Andrea Cortez is an analyst with the Elk Grove (California) Police Department’s Real Time Information Center and has 17 years of law enforcement experience.
Meet Andrea Cortez, a 17-year law enforcement officer and analyst at the Elk Grove (California) Police Department’s Real-Time Information Center.
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