After years of delays, Santa Ana is set to appoint its first police oversight director, a move that could help the city’s stalled Police Oversight Commission to dig into its work.
At its Tuesday, July 1, meeting, the City Council is expected to vote on appointing T. Jack Morse, a senior attorney with the Oppenheimer Investigations Group, to the director role. Morse would serve a two-year term with an annual salary of $250,000.
If appointed, Morse, at the direction of the commission and following a complaint, tort claim or lawsuit, would investigate serious allegations against police officers including cases involving deadly police shootings, in-custody deaths, serious injuries from use of force and allegations of discrimination, dishonesty, sexual assault, unlawful arrests of searches and interference with First Amendment-protected protests.
The commission was established in 2022 to increase transparency and accountability in the Santa Ana Police Department, but commissioners have been unable to investigate misconduct complaints or propose changes to department policy without a director in place.
“He’s going to have to hit the ground running,” Commissioner Carlos Perea said. “My hope is that the director is fully able to hit the ground running with the complaints, work quickly and diligently to review the complaints and investigate those that have merit.”
The commission’s complaint portal has been live since March 2024 and has received dozens of submissions. But in the absence of a director, complaints have been routed to Santa Ana PD leadership for review, which some commissioners have argued undermines the purpose of independent oversight.
Also, under state law, allegations of officer misconduct must be investigated within one year of when the city becomes aware of them, so the clock may be running out on early submissions.
Morse previously spent about eight years in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under both Obama administrations and the first Trump administration, where he investigated law enforcement agencies, jails and state institutions for compliance with federal law. He also worked in the Orange County Office of Independent Review and now serves as a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Councilmember Jessie Lopez said the council’s decision to recommend Morse was unanimous.
“Our community deserves real accountability and transparency,” Lopez said. “Now that the independent director is essentially being offered a contract to take on this role, I hope the commissioners are willing to learn and work with him.”
The commission, made up of seven residents appointed by the council, spent the early part of 2024 training. But without a director, it hasn’t been able to set agendas or investigate complaints, powers that the city attorney has said rest solely with the director.
“There was no leadership on the commission before and that might’ve made it difficult for commissioners to do their work,” Lopez said.
Morse’s appointment comes as city officials consider changes to the municipal code that could scale back the commission’s authority. Perea said the proposed revisions — developed by an ad hoc group convened by the mayor and reviewed by the city manager, city attorney and Police Department — would further restrict what the commission is allowed to review.
“What the director could do is going to depend on whether the City Council supports that,” Perea said.
The council is set to consider the amendments on Tuesday.
Perea said the director’s success will depend on whether city leaders allow the commission to operate as originally intended.
“We’re not here to do PR or damage control for SAPD,” he said. “The main thing here is accountability.”
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