On the first day of the new year, Paul Arteta took oath as Orange County’s new sheriff and promised to build on the past to make the county a safer and better place.
“We’ve done incredible things at the Sheriff’s Office, and it’s just going to get better and better in the future,” he said during his inauguration speech at the county’s emergency services center.
He highlighted the nine principles set forth two hundred years ago by Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police Service in London and widely known as the father of modern policing.
“Police are the public, and the public are the police—this was important 200 years ago, and it is so true today. Our communities matter—not just the good people, [but also] the bad people—everyone matters,” he said.
“Law enforcement is not simply locking up criminals,” he said. “[It] is about community engagement and educating our future generations of law enforcement officers and our children to keep this a great place to live, work, and play.”
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said there were two leadership qualities he saw in Arteta: that he is a problem solver who builds consensus for real solutions and that he is a bridge builder who can unite people of different ideas.
“He gets people to come around to see things his way without forcing them, without making them think that they are being forced. And he does it with a smile at the end,” he said.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus said Arteta would rebuild connections with other law enforcement agencies and government departments.
“I’ve seen some division, and I think Paul is going to bring everybody together,” he said. “That’s what means the most to me: I want to see the job getting done. Get all the personalities aside and get to work.”
Wilfredo Garcia and Evelyn Mallard were also sworn in as the new undersheriff and assistant undersheriff, respectively.
Garcia spent three decades in the New York State Police and was the county’s chief criminal investigator. Mallard was the superintendent of Ulster County corrections and director of training at the state police.
Arteta won the sheriff election on Nov. 8 as a candidate for the Republican and Conservative parties. He got 60 percent, or 69,807 votes, against the Democratic candidate Bernie Rivers.
He spent most of his law enforcement career in the county sheriff’s office, climbing through the ranks from a deputy to investigator, to sergeant-in-charge of daytime patrols, to sergeant-in-charge of investigations, to lieutenant, and to captain, earning dozens of awards along the way.
After he retired from the office in 2020, he served as deputy chief at the Montgomery Police Department.
The incumbent sheriff, Carl Dubois, is retiring after 20 years in office.
