GOSHEN, N.Y.—The Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced on Feb. 27 the launch of a community- and outreach-focused team aimed at preventing targeted violence.
The Orange County Threat Advisory Committee (OCTAC) is a team of county agencies and local partners with the goal of thwarting premeditated violent acts aimed at specific individuals, groups, or locations. It includes Orange County’s Mental Health Department, the County Executive’s Office, and sheriff’s investigators with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Development and training for OCTAC began after Gov. Kathy Hochul issued executive order 18 on May 18, 2022, four days after a mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo left 10 people dead. The executive order established funding for counties to build and run threat assessment management teams.
OCTAC is funded by state grants, and all members went through a three-day intensive course on threat evaluation and crime reporting.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said at the announcement press conference, “[This is] a multi-disciplinary group of people that are put together to identify, assess, and manage crises and solve those crises with an off-ramp away from the criminal justice system so that it never winds up in court.”
Hoovler said that it’s cheaper to have a group such as OCTAC prevent problems than to have those problems go through the court system.
OCTAC will recommend connecting individuals with mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and housing or vocational support, and it will use strategies such as mediation, conflict resolution, and voluntary engagement to prevent problems.
OCTAC works with schools, hospitals, and community organizations to bring in expertise for specific cases when needed. Cases are referred to OCTAC by other agencies or from reports from the public, and the committee recommends that residents and the public contact them via email.
Outreach and training for schools, businesses, and community organizations will be provided by OCTAC, as will listening and education sessions to help the public understand the organization and how to access its support.
Sheriff Paul Arteta said at the press conference: “Orange County has always been a place where neighbors look out for one another. OCTAC is an extension of that tradition.”
