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Services   >   Operational Services

Operational Services

Bureau Chief Carlos Torres

2500 West Colonial Drive

Orlando, Florida, 32804 

(407) 254-7000 

 

As the name might imply, the Operational Services Bureau serves as the home of the enforcement or operational components of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The agency's Uniform Patrol Division, Criminal Investigations Division and Special Operations Division all serve within this bureau. These are the men and women you see every day on the streets behind the wheels of the marked patrol cars or painstakingly investigating a robbery or homicide. They are also the men and women you don't see.

Deputies assigned to Operational Services work dangerous undercover drug operations or are assigned to the Street Enforcement Section where they work the meanest beats in the county. But while all of those are important there's more to the bureau than street cops, undercover investigators, and detectives. You will also find the SWAT Team, Emergency Response Team, the agency's Hostage Negotiation Team and the Hazardous Device Team working under the Operational Services umbrella. The agency's Honor Guard, Reserve Deputies, and Task Force all work within this Bureau.

 

 

 

Uniform Patrol Division

Deputies assigned to the Uniform Patrol Division are the backbone of the Sheriff's Office. These are the men and women who are the first to respond to your call for help. They are almost always the first to arrive on a scene and give aid and comfort to the injured. They often put themselves in harm's way every day they are on the job to stabilize a violent domestic call or when they search a dark building for a dangerous suspect.

They pull victims out of burning buildings or give the first life-saving breaths of CPR to the child they have just pulled out of a backyard swimming pool. They serve and protect the citizens of Orange County and they do it with little recognition or fanfare. They take it all in and see what they do as simply part of their jobs.

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Criminal Investigation Division

Arguably one of the busiest divisions of the Sheriff's Office, the Criminal Investigations Division is unquestionably a very busy shop.

The agency's criminal investigative functions are assigned to this division, the Major Case Section, General Assignment Section as well as the agency's Investigative Services Section.

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Special Operation Division

This part of the agency enhances the delivery of law enforcement services to the citizens of Orange County and its visitors. This division has multiple components, most of them recognizable as being the exciting and enjoyable members of our agency. Within this division, we have multiple sections: Specialized Patrol, Traffic, Aviation, and Narcotics. Our Specialized Patrol Section is the most diverse. 

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High Risk Incident Command

If the name of this command doesn't tip you off in terms of its importance to the day to day operation of the Sheriff's Office, the units that serve under it certainly will.  

These are the folks who get the call during the most critical incidents that occur in the county.  

The range of assignments handled by HRIC can span from the recovery and rendering safe of an explosive device to the long term recovery of a natural disaster that has crippled the county.

Worth noting, is the fact that most of the personnel who have volunteered to serve on an HRIC unit all have "day jobs."  That is, they all work regular assignments within the agency, but are ready at a moment's notice, to respond to a critical incident when the call goes out.  Clearly, HRIC is a vital component of the operational inventory of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. 

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Behavioral Response Unit

 

 

What is it?
The Behavioral Response Unit is a Co-Responder Model pilot program in which trained mental health clinicians from Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health are paired with Orange County deputies to respond to calls for service involving mental health crisis. The program was launched December 15, 2020 with two Deputy-Clinician teams.

The clinicians are mental health professionals and the deputies all are Crisis Intervention Trained (CIT), and have undergone 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training. Together, the clinicians and the BRU deputies participated in 40 hours of specialized Behavioral Response Unit training, which took place earlier this month. 

Why a Co-Responder Model?
In 2019, after seeing some national incidents involving people in mental health crisis, Sheriff Mina thought about what the agency could do to prevent some of these tragedies from happening. Even though there are about 400 OCSO CIT-trained deputies, they don’t have all the tools needed to help people who are experiencing a mental health crisis. 

Sheriff Mina asked his staff to research best practices nationwide, and Major Carlos Torres traveled to California and Miami in early 2020 to look at their models. After reviewing all of the material, Sheriff Mina settled on the Co-Responder Model, pairing mental health clinicians with deputies. 

More about the Behavioral Response Unit
Deputies assigned to the BRU have Crisis Intervention training, but mental health clinicians are in a better position to help directly with those in crisis. The teams will respond to calls for service related to mental illness, PTSD and some substance abuse issues. The deputies will make sure the clinician and the area is safe.

On average, OCSO responds to roughly 8,000 calls annually – that’s 22 calls a day - regarding individuals experiencing some sort of mental crisis. Family members or others with minimal options to care for those in crisis, turn to law enforcement for help. Often in those cases, the options for law enforcement are arrest or Baker Act. The BRU deputies and clinicians will be able to access community resources, and they will also be able to follow up with the individuals and help create a treatment plan. 

The BRU teams will spend their shifts monitoring the radio and responding to appropriate calls for service. They can also be summoned to a scene if a responding patrol deputy requests them. There will always be a patrol deputy or deputies initially responding to these calls for service to ensure the scene is safe for the BRU teams. 

We expect the teams will use all of their training and background to help de-escalate situations, arrive at peaceful resolutions and limit our number of arrests, response to resistance and Baker Acts. 

BRU