The Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) is shifting the way it interacts with the homeless through dozens of liaison officers trained to work with the demographic. “This is necessary because when we’re dealing with the homeless, we’ve realized that many of these people are experiencing mental illness, and also substance use disorder,” Sheriff Don Barnes said during a wide-ranging community briefing March 24. “Transitioning away from homeless outreach specifically allows us to intervene with people before they’re homeless, or people who are experiencing crisis by bringing the appropriate key stakeholders and interventionists, social workers, and clinicians to deal with those issues in lieu of a law enforcement response.” So far, 50 OCSD homeless liaison officers are transitioning to the new model through its newly-launched Behavioral Health Bureau. Barnes also discussed how the bureau could benefit the public at large. “Law enforcement should not be the first face of government that those experiencing crisis …