Fund for this grant will be used to support law enforcement and preventions initiatives essential to Orange County services.

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant

(JAG) Program FY2023 Local Solicitation

Orange County Board of County Commissioners –

Project Abstract

The Orange County Board of County Commissioners (Grantee) will utilize the JAG FY23 - Local Solicitation award to support a variety of law enforcement and prevention-related initiatives that will enhance essential county services while increasing public safety, prevention, and educational programs in Orange County. The projects include: 1) The Orange County Corrections Department will acquire a three-year software license contract for a virtual reality training. The virtual reality training will provide a three-dimensional, simulated experience that mimics real-world situations where trainees learn to identify, and use proper tactics, verbal communications, and de-escalation techniques so they can build resilience and maximize readiness in the field. 2) Orange County Sheriff’s Office Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) will purchase two of the Universal Training Munitions (UTM) Portable Training Facility (PTF) kits.  The SWAT team is tasked with providing agency-wide training as well as team training that is usually conducted at the OCSO Firearms Training Facility. Due to the volume of training, this venue has limited availability. The UTM Portable Training Facility will increase the training sessions as it provides indoor and outdoor training venue that it is easy to assemble and transport. The two kits will allow larger or separate areas to be constructed. 3) The Orange County Office of Emergency Management will provide The Active Violence Training and Exercise Project (AVTEP) that will consist in a series of training courses offered to law enforcement, fire rescue, EMS, and first responders to coincide with a full-scale, multi-jurisdictional exercise. This project will provide the most up-to-date training in response and recovery actions for active violence situations to all response partners. 4) Children’s Safety Village will continue to conduct the educational program called: Program Presentation Fees for Child Safety Educational Programs. The program presentation fees cover the cost for six-thousand children ages five to seventeen to participate in this program. Children will have the opportunity to learn about safety related programs and threats in a controlled environment utilizing the resources of the Children's Safety Village. Program options include gun safety, dangerous person awareness, 9-1-1 for kids and internet safety. 5) The Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) will implement Phase II of the JAC Badge Access Reader Project. This project consists of adding card access readers to five office doors to enhance security and access control to the JAC Facility. 6) The Orange County Sheriff’s Office will acquire one unit of the high performance portable digital ScanX Scout X-Ray System needed to determine the contents of a package and to provide important intelligence if it is determined that an energetic disruption is necessary. 7) Orange County Fire Rescue will purchase seven additional units of the APX NEXT XE 7/800 MHZ Portable Radios to create multiple kits to be utilized in the event of a large-scale multi-agency incident. 8) Orange County Sheriff’s Office Hazardous Device Team (OCSO HDT) will purchase one unit of the NeX-Ray Nano Portable X-Ray System to determine the content of a package left unattended during special events such as run races, football games, sporting events, and other events hosted at the Orange County Convention Center that require dismounted operations. During these operations, the technicians do not have immediate access to the truck and may need to do a quick assessment prior to a response. This equipment will allow the technicians to determine the next step and to include the possibility of evacuations of the immediate area if any threat is being determined. 9) Orange County Corrections Department will complete a Rapid DNA Pilot Program for thirty days. The thirty days pilot program will provide corrections officers the ability to compare DNA samples collected at the time of an arrest to profiles in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Since the DNA results will be under two hours, this will allow to identify individuals, once they are still in custody, reducing flight risk and continued criminal activities.