Orange County OIR: overdoses concentrated early in custody; office stretched thin

The Office of Independent Review told the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24 that its small staff is stretched thin while reviewing deputy-involved shootings, custodial deaths and a multi-part systemic review of OC spray in juvenile facilities.

The report, delivered by the OIR director (Mr. Fagan), said the office has requested roughly 152 items from the sheriff's department this year and that the sheriff has provided about 90 percent of those materials; the OIR has asked the district attorney for 23 items related to deaths in custody and has received those materials. "Reviewing that information is the most time-consuming part of what we do," Mr. Fagan said.

Why it matters: The OIR is the county's external oversight arm for law-enforcement-related incidents. Its public reviews and recommendations inform board oversight, sheriff operations and, potentially, policy changes.

Mr. Fagan summarized the office's caseload and findings: OIR is reviewing seven deputy-involved shootings from 2022 onward, is completing reports on 30 custody-connected deaths and is drafting incident reports for 28 OC-spray incidents that will be appended to a larger systemic report. He told the board that, in the period reviewed, fentanyl and methamphetamine overdoses among people newly in custody occurred within the first seven days of incarceration. "While we're nowhere near ready to draw conclusions, we are seeing some similar time frames in terms of deaths occurring after being in custody for a short period of time," he said.

The OIR also described the status of recommendations to the sheriff's office: "Of the 27 recommendations we made, 17 have been fully implemented, three are in the process of being implemented, four were considered but not adopted, and three were not implemented," Mr. Fagan said. He urged continued dialogue with the sheriff's office about whether some operational changes could be made, including sequencing of criminal and administrative interviews following use-of-force incidents.

Board members asked several operational and staffing questions. Supervisor Katrina Foley pressed for a timeline for the deeper analysis of early-incarceration overdoses and whether OIR needs additional staff. Mr. Fagan said OIR currently has two staff attorneys, one vacancy, and that additional attorney or law-clerk support would speed analysis: "If we have some more staff, we're able to move some of this stuff through quicker," he said. Several supervisors voiced support for augmenting OIR capacity to complete timely reviews and to produce an overarching systemic report.

The board received and filed the oral presentation. The OIR made public a first custodial-death review and said it plans an overarching systemic report after completing individual incident reports.

The matter: This was a receive-and-file presentation (no board action beyond receipt). The board discussed whether to support additional OIR staffing in future budget cycles.