Captain Sotelo of the Orange County Sheriff's Department presented the department's monthly statistics covering Sept. 23 through Oct. 26 and urged residents to verify any unexpected calls requesting money.

"I will be going over the stats for the month covering September 23 through October 26," Captain Sotelo said as he opened his report. He said the department responded to 317 calls for service during the period and generated 11 criminal or informational reports. The data included one crime against persons (a domestic-violence case), three crimes against property or society, and one injury traffic collision that resulted in a fatality. The department issued 46 moving citations and 15 parking citations.

Captain Sotelo described a fraud case in which a Villa Park resident received a phone call from a person impersonating law enforcement and was told they had a warrant and that they needed to buy gift cards and turn them over. "The sheriff's department nor any other law enforcement agent will never call you to tell you that either you have a warrant or that you owe money," he said, adding that fines and tickets are handled through the courts.

The captain highlighted response-time improvements for priority 1 calls. "First quarter 2025, it was 7 minutes and 44 seconds. By '25, we knocked it down to 3 minutes and 32 seconds and then it leveled off a little bit in q3 to 3 minutes and 53 seconds," he said, noting the department aims for a countywide target of about five minutes.

Council members thanked the department for faster response times and asked whether the fraud victim was an older adult; Captain Sotelo said he had not checked the victim's age and that there was no elder abuse enhancement charged.

The department invited residents to report suspicious calls and verify requests for money, and councilmembers said the statistics and response-time improvements were important for resident confidence in public safety.