Office of Independent Review warns of early custody overdoses, seeks staff and time for systemic reviews

The Office of Independent Review (OIR) told the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24 that it is conducting multiple reviews into deputy-involved shootings and custody-connected deaths and is working on a multipart systemic review of OC spray use in juvenile facilities.

“Mister Fagan,” the OIR presenter, told the board the office is small and currently down a staff attorney. He said OIR has submitted roughly 152 document requests to the Sheriff’s Department in 2024 and that reviewing video, photos and documents is the most time-consuming part of its work. “So far in 2024 alone, the OIR has requested a 152 items from the sheriff's department,” he said.

Fagan said the OIR is reviewing all deputy-involved shootings from 2022 forward and has completed or drafted incident reports for most of 28 OC spray incidents that occurred in 2022; those incident reports will be appended to a larger systemic report. On deaths in custody, he said the OIR is coordinating with the district attorney and that the DA has provided the OIR with materials for calendar-year 2022 deaths; the OIR has published at least one public review and plans an overarching systemic report once case reviews are complete.

The OIR presenter also flagged a troubling pattern in the early days of some incarcerations: overdose deaths involving fentanyl and methamphetamine that occurred within the first seven days of custody during the period under review. “The most telling thing about this slide is the fact that overdoses of fentanyl and methamphetamine occurred within the first 7 days of incarceration,” he said.

Supervisors pressed the OIR for timing and recommendations. Supervisor Katrina Foley said the early-days overdose pattern may point to an actionable intervention and asked when analysis and recommendations would be complete; Fagan said the work is labor intensive and that the office may ask the board for additional staff in the upcoming fiscal year. “We may need additional staff because the analysis is done by the attorneys,” he said.

Board members also sought detail about the status of OIR recommendations to the Sheriff’s Department. Fagan said the OIR has issued 27 recommendations; 17 are fully implemented, three are in process, four were considered but left to departmental discretion, and three were not implemented. He described examples — such as recommendations about training and policies governing the application of pressure or body weight — where the sheriff’s department felt existing academy training addressed the concern.

Fagan told the board the OIR has used its citizen-complaint authority to review allegations of excessive force, discrimination and harassment and that the office has several open reviews and incident-specific complaints it continues to investigate.

Supervisor follow-up focused on practical next steps: Foley recommended OIR consider law-clerk support to help with data crunching; Supervisor Doug Chaffee urged the office to check how comparable agencies handle criminal versus administrative interviews after an officer uses force; and Second District Supervisor asked the OIR to break down complaints and recommendations by the agencies it oversees.

The board received and filed the OIR update. Supervisors said they will evaluate whether to provide additional resources to complete the OIR’s planned systemic reports and to accelerate analysis on early-days overdoses.