The Challenge
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) is one of the largest sheriff’s organizations in the country, with more than 4,000 sworn and professional staff. In 2020, it was facing a significant crossroads regarding technological capabilities and staffing. Following a major reorganization that merged two divisions — public safety radio and technology — leaders were facing a fractured culture, outdated technology and a need for strategic direction. Survey feedback from internal technology staff was sobering: the department was clearly lagging in innovation and morale was low. With the COVID-19 pandemic adding pressure to modernize, the agency needed to reinvent both its technology infrastructure and workplace culture.
The Solution
To effectively drive change, OCSD built a centralized technology center designed to look and operate like a Silicon Valley startup. A large part of that effort included a partnership with Samsung to deploy modern, innovative display technologies, including direct view LED displays and 4K signage. The design was intentionally state-of-the-art to create an innovative employee experience that would help foster innovation, collaboration and open communication, all while facilitating real-time public safety operations. Samsung’s microLED solution, The Wall known for stunning picture quality and the high-resolution QMR-B displays in 4K became integral to the visual assimilation of data and the management of live incidents.
"The quality allows us to display content in a rich and vibrant way, regardless of lighting or distance. And that aligns perfectly with our goal of being leaders in modern policing technology."
— Dave Fontneau, Chief Information Officer, Orange County Sheriff’s Department
The Results
Today, the OCSD Technology Center serves as a regional model of what modern public safety operations can look like. The Samsung displays provide heightened situational awareness across training, operations and real-time command spaces. OCSD staff now enjoy an open, collaborative workplace designed for creativity and informed decision making. With seamless integration across facilities and agencies, the technology is helping the department lead an even broader initiative to effectively connect partner agencies throughout Orange County and adjacent counties, a concept often referred to as the “Connected Southland.” The result will be effective sharing of information in real-time across traditional agency boundaries, creating a smarter, more agile and responsive law enforcement ecosystem.
About Orange County Sheriff
About:
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is among the largest in the nation, providing exemplary law enforcement services focused on a collaborative, dedicated and innovative approach to public safety.
Our nearly 4,000 sworn and professional staff are committed to serving the needs of Orange County through six organizational Commands comprised of 23 Divisions. Together, these Commands and Divisions provide services including land, air and sea-based patrol, custody operations, investigative services, emergency management, coroner services, forensics and specialty operations, among an extensive list of other public safety services.
The Challenge
A new division, a new direction
In March 2020, the OCSD launched a bold reorganization that merged two distinct divisions — one overseeing a massive public safety radio system supporting approximately 100 different agencies, and another focused on OCSD internal technology. The consolidation created a new 150-person technology division charged with supporting more than 26,000 radio users and 4,000 OCSD employees. However, the timing couldn’t have been more challenging.
Just as the merger took effect, the pandemic forced the agency to quickly pivot to remote operations. The changeover effort exposed long-standing issues: legacy systems dating back to the 1980s, siloed workflows across four separate facilities and a lack of strategic operational alignment. The technology infrastructure wasn’t ready, and the agency struggled through a difficult 60-day transition before the sheriff ordered in-person operations to resume full-time.
A candid internal survey confirmed what leadership feared — the department was falling behind in public safety technology. “Our people told us we were failing in many areas,” explained Dave Fontneau, OCSD’s Chief Information Officer. “They wanted to know why we weren’t leading in technology, especially being one of the largest sheriff’s departments in the country.”
That feedback became the catalyst for change.
Fontneau and his team at OCSD crafted a new mission: to become leaders in public safety technology. But that mission required more than new tools — it demanded a cultural reset. “We knew we couldn’t just move into a new space and replicate what wasn’t working,” Fontneau said. “We had to build something entirely new.”
This cultural reset is also reflected in OCSD’s talent strategy, driving a business-minded approach to technology and innovation.
“We’re recruiting from the private sector, and we’ve adopted the mindset that tech should be treated like a business, not a bureaucracy,” Fontneau said. “That shift has been critical to how we approach innovation and build our team.”
The Solution
Building the future, not replicating the past
Fontneau and his team at OCSD set out to design a facility that would reflect and reinforce their new identity.
“As the largest law enforcement agency in the county, and one of the largest in the nation, Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s vision was to create a forward-thinking, tech-driven department that could support the needs of both the sheriff’s office and the broader community that they serve,” said Linda Braun, Executive Director of Sales, Enterprise and Public Sector at Samsung Electronics America.
Inspired by Silicon Valley startups, they envisioned a space that was open, inviting and designed to foster creativity, collaboration and continuous learning. “Orange County Sheriff’s Department wanted to make it an employee-first, comfortable environment where they want to do their best work possible,” said Braun.
The result was the OCSD Technology Center: a modern operations hub that serves as both a workplace and innovation incubator.
When it came to equipping this new environment, OCSD sought technology partners who could match their vision. “We didn’t want a low-bid solution,” Fontneau said. “We wanted strategic partners who were leading in their space and could lead with us.” Samsung emerged as a key collaborator.
The department deployed a broad suite of Samsung technologies across the facility, including approximately eight of our large-format microLED solution: The Wall and displays including the QMR-B series with UHD upscaling and crystal-clear 4K picture quality.
The display solutions were installed in the real-time operations center, training rooms, department operations center, collaboration spaces and even a museum area within the facility. “When you consider an environment such as public safety, you want to make it easy to view mission critical content from anywhere in a given room,” said Braun. ” And Samsung displays offer an immediate plug-and-play set up that allows department staff to jump right into meetings without any technical headaches.”
Each video wall serves a distinct purpose, but all are tied into a flexible, interconnected AV system that allows staff to push and pull content to any part of the facility in real time. Whether monitoring traffic cams, drone feeds or live incidents, the system is designed for total situational awareness. “The quality allows us to display content in a rich and vibrant way, regardless of lighting or distance,” Fontneau said. “And that aligns perfectly with our goal of being leaders in modern policing technology.”
Even as OCSD personnel work through final system commissioning and integration issues, the department is already planning to replicate the setup across other facilities countywide.
The vision: a unified, scalable platform for public safety coordination — all utilizing Samsung display technology.
The Technology
The Wall All-in-One
Every detail comes to life on The Wall All-in-One thanks to its Black Seal Technology and superior color purity. The display is ready to go out of the box, with a control box, wall brackets, speakers and deco bezels all included.
QM Series
Samsung’s QMR series displays cut through the clutter to deliver best-in-class UHD resolution as well as intelligent UHD upscaling and rich flawless colors with Dynamic Crystal Color, all in a slim design. The non-glare display provides better visibility from all angles, any time of day.
The Results
A living model for public safety's future
The impact of the Samsung-equipped OCSD Technology Center has been transformative. Within the center, personnel operate in what Fontneau calls a technology incubator. “We created an environment where they feel comfortable testing, evaluating and breaking new technologies and solutions before they ever put them into a production environment,” he explained. “We want them to test, fail fast and try new things before we ever go to market with them. That’s a new concept for our people, and I think for most, especially in the government side of things.”
The open environment and high-quality visuals help support dynamic collaboration, whether training personnel or managing high-stakes events. But the benefits extend far beyond the facility walls. OCSD is now implementing a regional model, welcoming municipal agencies throughout the county and beyond to share data, video feeds and resources within the center. Whether it’s civil unrest, major crimes or multi-jurisdictional incidents, participating agencies can now coordinate efforts in real time. The concept, often referred to as “Connected Southland” by Fontneau, relies on cloud-native platforms and Samsung’s hardware foundation to break down traditional jurisdictional silos.
“We’ve had LAPD chiefs in our center watching live feeds from Los Angeles — right here in Orange County,” Fontneau noted. “That’s the level of interconnectivity we’ve achieved.” With dedicated radio channels, open APIs and permission-based access, multiple agencies can share video, voice and operational data in real time.
Looking ahead, OCSD plans to expand the Samsung digital signage solutions countywide and eventually extend it across partner agencies as part of the “Connected Southland” model. The goal is to enable real-time push-pull content sharing across jurisdictions, creating a unified information environment regardless of location.
One piece of advice Fontneau often shares with peers: “Always build bigger than you think you need. You’ll run out of space faster than you expect — and new opportunities will keep emerging.”
From a funding perspective, the project was made possible not by external stimulus monies but through internal resourcefulness. By canceling outdated legacy contracts and shifting to cloud-native tools, OCSD realized significant savings that were redirected into building the new facility — an investment that continues to deliver returns in agility, readiness and morale. A key to the success of this effort has been the relationship OCSD has established with the companies with which they are working. “We don’t call them vendors anymore,” Fontneau said. “We call them strategic partners. Samsung has truly been a partner on this journey.”
Today, OCSD’s Technology Center is more than a showpiece — it’s a living example of what’s possible when public safety agencies rethink what they are and what they can be. By aligning leadership vision with the right partners and the right tools, OCSD has created a foundation not just for today’s challenges, but for tomorrow’s opportunities.
