What I found when we looked closer
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is the chief law enforcement agency for a county of 1,066,113 residents spread across 1,004 square miles. It runs on a budget of more than $300 million with more than 2,700 sworn and civilian employees. On top of the resident population, Orange County receives more than 72 million visitors a year.
At that scale, documentation is a volume problem. Many victims and witnesses are visitors who will be back home before a follow-up interview can happen, so the first report has to capture the full account the first time.
Following one report through the building
The first thing we do with a new department is trace where a report goes after the officer hits submit. Here, it passes through 5 hands:
- 1Deputy
- 2Sergeant
- 3District investigations
- 4Specialized units
- 5State attorney
Every one of those readers needs the same facts from the first draft. That is what shaped what we built.
What we built for them
With 72 million visitors a year, many witnesses will not be reachable for follow-up. A source-linked draft captures the full account on first contact.
Across 1,004 square miles and many districts, investigators can search footage and prior narratives countywide instead of requesting files one by one.
An agency of more than 2,700 employees produces a steady stream of release requests. Redact makes that review repeatable.
What we're watching
These are the signals that will tell us whether it's working here:
- Visitor-involved cases closed without a callback
- Consistency of drafts across districts
- Records requests closed per month
Figures on this page come from the department's own published materials. We only publish Code Four results after the department reviews them.
