The Irvine Police Department is the local

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LE ...

of the city of

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

, United States. The department's jurisdiction includes the entire city of Irvine, which covers nearly and a population of over 270,000, as well as the

Orange County Great Park The Great Park is a public park located in Irvine, California, with a focus on sports, agriculture, and the arts. It is a non-aviation reuse of the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro. The Orange County park comprises 28.8 ...

. It also supplements the jurisdiction of the University of California, Irvine, Police Department, whose jurisdiction includes the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

campus and surrounding areas of the city.

History

Law enforcement in Irvine

The earliest organized law enforcement in what is today the city of Irvine, would have dated back to

California's California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

entry as a US state in 1850. At this time, the area today known as Orange County was still a part of

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. The

Los Angeles Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States ...

was responsible for law enforcement to all areas of the county at that time. In the mid-19th century, due to the levels of lawlessness in the southern counties of California, the governor created the

Los Angeles Rangers LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significan ...

, a mounted volunteer cavalry unit that supplemented law enforcement in Southern California. This unit was dissolved by the 1860s. By 1889, the area today known as Orange County was allowed by the state of California to break away from Los Angeles County. The Irvine Ranch (run first by the Irvine Family, later by the Irvine Company and Irvine Foundation) also had its own Special Deputies (peace officers), authorized by the Orange County Sheriff. The city of Irvine was originally developed as a master planned community by the

Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...

, working in conjunction with the state that also built the

during the early 1960s. The City of Irvine incorporated in 1971 following a popular vote by the people of the community. For the first year of the city's existence, the city contracted with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to continue law enforcement service to the formerly unincorporated county area, following the Lakewood/ Los Angeles Sheriff's Model from 1954. In 1972, the city of Irvine changed their contract law enforcement agency to the Costa Mesa Police Department, that provided contract police service until 1975, this time following the Brea Police/

Yorba Linda Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, United States, approximately Ordinal directions, southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and had a population of 68,336 at th ...

model. During that period, officers from

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of th ...

Police would work the Irvine contract, wearing their Costa Mesa uniforms, but with a patch denoting their assignment to Irvine, under their normal Costa Mesa uniform shoulder patches. These officers used marked Costa Mesa patrol units, albeit with the Irvine city seal in place of the Costa Mesa city seal on the doors.

Irvine Police Department

The Irvine Police Department was founded in 1975. Much of its original membership came from officers that formerly had worked the Irvine area under the four-year contract with the Costa Mesa Police Department. In July 2017 the department created a mounted unit.

Rank structure

Chiefs

*Leo Peart *Charles Brobeck *Michael Berkow *Dave Maggard *Mike Hamel *Michael Kent

Vehicles

Even after breaking away from Costa Mesa, the Irvine Police marked units continued to carry the distinct "all white" paint schemes for their cars, with a set of a green and a blue "racing stripes" running the length of the car on the driver's side, from front to back. Until January 2019, Irvine units were white and had a distinct blue stripe running the length of the car with a city seal at the front and the words "Irvine Police" printed on it. The department switched to the traditional "black and white" units. The new graphics contained the city logo at the front, a thin blue line stretching across the doors, and the words "City of Irvine" above the blue line and "POLICE" below it. The non sworn employee vehicles remained white but received the new graphics.

References

External links

*Irvine Police Departmen

*Geographic Area - Crossroad

*Geographic Area - Portol

*Geographic Area - Universit

{{Coord, 33.68614462119674, -117.82619653999609, format=dms, display=title Organizations based in Irvine, California Emergency services in Orange County, California Municipal police departments of California Government agencies established in 1975 1975 establishments in California