Academy Museum Tour

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The Orange County Sheriff's Department and its training academy partner, the Rancho Santiago Community College District, have generously provided 1200 square feet of lobby display space to accommodate the Orange County Sheriff's Museum & Education Center as their interim home. The Orange County Sheriff's Museum & Education Center has provided numerous historically significant and interesting OCSD related displays. Among the displays is a Kawasaki model KZ-1000 police motorcycle outfitted as a 1987 version of the department's motorcycles. This KZ-1000 features a Motorola UHF two-way radio that was specialized for the department to include two UHF mobile radios in one housing, supporting the Red Channel where emergency broadcasts were received by patrol units. Other displays include a black-and-white photo gallery depicting the rich history of the department and the training academy, a prisoner ball and chain from the early 1900's, numerous artifacts such as early Sheriff's Department equipment, and a display of early Sheriff ID cards.

 

The jewel of the training academy museum is a display tower and lighted polycarbonate plastic display pyramid with approximately 50 current and obsolete Orange County Sheriff and County of Orange employee badges. One of several display cabinets is dedicated as a "rotating display" that features various units and departments within the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The current display highlights the Orange County Sheriff's Department Bomb Squad, showing numerous sample explosive devices located and confiscated within the county, along with examples of some of the protective equipment used by the department. The Orange County Sheriff's Museum & Education Center has a considerable amount of other department historical artifacts in storage that will be displayed in the future when the Museum has a dedicated facility. The Museum is seeking donations or loans of Orange County Sheriff's Department items of historical significance.