Justice Department Announces Successful Completion of Agreement on Custodial Informant Reforms with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department

Today, the Justice Department announced the successful completion of the Justice Department’s Jan. 17, Agreement for the Sustainability of Custodial Informant Reforms with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) in California to sustain reforms addressing OCSD’s prior pattern or practice of using custodial informants in a manner that violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Under the Agreement, OCSD implemented enhancement and sustainability measures with respect to its policies, training, information systems, and auditing procedures and the information it makes publicly available related to its use of custodial informants. These measures adequately ensure that OCSD’s reforms to prevent the use of custodial informants in an unconstitutional manner are durable and robust.

“The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has demonstrated an enduring commitment to protecting the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of those in its jurisdiction,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We commend the Sheriff and his staff for their efforts in doing their part to ensure the integrity of criminal prosecutions.”

To read the original press release announcing the findings of the investigation, click here. To read the report of the investigation, click here. To read the original OCSD Settlement Agreement, click here. To read the Validation Assessment Report, click here. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt.