Wake Up! Newport – Don Barnes – Orange County Sheriff

Sheriff Don Barnes began his law enforcement career with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in 1989. In 2018, he was elected the 13th Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County. Sheriff Barnes leading initiatives are aimed at reducing the prevalence of drugs in our neighborhoods, enhancing school safety, mitigating the impacts of homelessness, and advocating for the restoration of accountability in our criminal justice system.

Sheriff Barnes leads almost 4,000 sworn and professional women and men who work in diverse areas including Patrol Operations, Criminal and Special Investigations, the County’s Crime Lab and Courts, the Coroner’s Office, and Orange County’s five jails, which collectively comprise one of the nation’s largest jail systems. The department provides direct patrol services to more than 783,000 residents within the county’s unincorporated areas and contracts with 13 municipal cities, the County’s three harbors, John Wayne Airport, and the Orange County Transportation Agency.

The Sheriff serves as Immediate Past President of the California State Sheriffs’ Association and as Chair of the association’s Technology Committee. At the national level, he is Vice President responsible for Homeland Security and Chair of the Intelligence Commander Group for Major County Sheriffs of America. In these roles, the Sheriff works toward solutions to address threats like transnational crime, terrorism, drug cartels, human trafficking and cyber-crime. Sheriff Barnes is the designated representative for county sheriffs on several federal committees, including the FBI’s Lawful Access to Emerging Technologies Intergovernmental Committee (LAETIC) Committee, the Department of Homeland Security’s State and Local Intelligence Council (SLIC), and Vice Chair of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC).

Within the community, Sheriff Barnes serves on the board of Laura’s House, a local organization which provides domestic violence related shelter, services, and counseling.

Sheriff Barnes has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Masters of
Public Administration. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the FBI National Executive Institute, USC’s CREATE Program on Counterterrorism, the Senior Management Institute for Policing, and IACP’s Leadership in Police Organizations. Sheriff Barnes has also been an instructor at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Regional Training Academy and adjunct faculty for the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Management School through California State University, Long Beach.