Decal-ing All Cars: Sheriff Is at the Door

What’s in a name? Quite a lot at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

As part of a plan to update the appearance of its patrol cars, the agency is proposing to put Sheriff Mike Carona’s name on each vehicle.

The proposal is raising some eyebrows. If it goes through, the cars would be the only cruisers in Southern California to bear the name of a sheriff, department officials said.

Carona and others contend that decals bearing the sheriff’s name would encourage people to call him with complaints or suggestions about their encounters with deputies. Critics say the proposal more likely would help Carona’s reelection efforts, with the cars providing a simple way to raise Carona’s profile in cities patrolled by the Sheriff’s Department.

“Most politicians will use the perks of the office to get reelected, and that’s what he’s doing,” said George P. Wright, chairman of Santa Ana College’s criminal justice department. “There’s a certain line that, when you go over, you are perceived as a bit puffed up.” The decal plan, he said, “seems to cross the humility line.”

Carona acknowledged that adding his name to cruisers might help him win a second term in office but said that is not why he supports the proposal. Indeed, the move could bring risks as well as advantages, he said.

“It absolutely helps me. Politics is a name I.D. game,” Carona said. “But the fact of the matter is that I’m the one who has my name on the car, and if there are any issues, any complaints, they’ll come back to me.”

The proposal to add Carona’s name is just one of many suggestions that officials are examining as a way to spruce up the department’s cruisers. Others are adding a blue stripe along the side of the cars and possibly painting the back doors of the vehicles white to match the front two--renovations that officials say would lend a more modern appearance.

Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo said that among the most important design-change ideas is a suggestion to display the seal of contract cities prominently near the front doors of the cars.

The seals, he said, would give residents of the nine cities that the department patrols a feeling that they are served by a local police department, albeit one with the resources of a county agency.

“Residents have to realize that these are their police officers,” Jaramillo said. “This is not about some sheriff’s deputies coming up to take care of business for a day. These are their sheriff’s deputies.”

So far, the planned changes are cosmetic, and Jaramillo insisted that costs will be negligible. The department already manufactures its own insignias for its patrol cars and will need only to make new ones, a relatively simple task, he said.

None of the three design plans on the table are final, though the renovations are expected to begin as early as January or February. Officials said a committee of department staff, city managers and deputies union officials will work out final details.