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ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE TRAINING BULLETIN Effective Date: February 22, 2023  NEW Training Bulletin Number: TB 23 -1 Distribution: All Personnel Review Month: April Reviewing Authority: Undersheriff / Strategic Communications Subject: Operation Save -A-Casing 1. Policy The “Operation Save -A-Casing ” initiative, is a program that allows for residents to provide critical ballistic intelligence to law enforcement in the event that their firearms are stolen or lost . 2. Purpose Through Operation Save -A-Casing , community members can retain two shell casings that have been previously fired from a firearm the y own. If a theft of the firearm occurs, the owner can turn the spent shell casings over to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to aid in the investigation. This training bulletin outlines the steps to retrieve the shell casings and submit the casings to evidence for processing by forensics. 3. Procedures Deputies shall follow the below steps when retrieving casings in conjunction with Operation Save -A-Casing : A. When a victim contacts the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center to report a firearm stolen, the call will be dispatched to a deputy in accordance with agency policy. B. The deputy shall respond to the location to take a report for a stolen firearm and initiate a preliminary investigation. C. During the preliminary investigation, the deputy shall ask the victim if they have firearm shell casings as part of Operation Save -A-Casing . 1. If not, then the responding deputy does not need to do anything additional in regards to this training bulletin. 2. If the victim does have shell casings in conjunction with Operation Save -A- Casing , the deputy shall; a. retrieve the envelope with the two spent shell casings as evidence in the case. b. complete a property form and indicate on it that the shell casings need to be processed by the forensics unit in accordance with agency policy. c. log the casings into e vidence. TB 23 -1, Page 2 of 2 d. document in the report that the casings were taken into evidence as part of Operation Save -A-Casing and were submitted to evidence, to be sent to forensics for processing. D. If a deputy responds to another location to conduct a preliminary inves tigation and the victim does not have the shell casings with them at that time, the victim shall be given instructions on how to contact the sheriff’s office to provide them at a later time. E. Any deputy responding to a follow up call to retrieve shell c asings as part of the Operation Save -A-Casing initiative shall follow the steps outlined above and complete a supplemental report. F. Deputies who find an individual wanting to participate in Operation Save -A-Casing can provide an envelope with the appropr iate instructions. 1. Write the Make, Model and S erial Number of the firearm on the envelope. 2. Place two spent shell casings in the envelope and store the envelope separately from the firearm. 3. Provide the envelope to a law enforcement officer if your firearm is stolen.