Orange County Sheriff joins youth justice conference focused on trust

Orange County youth got more than a photo-op when Sheriff Paul Arteta, Deputy Anthony Galeno and Investigator Brian Shanely joined youth advocates and four young participants at the 2026 Youth Justice Conference in Albany. The county’s presence put law enforcement, program leaders and teenagers in the same room around one central issue: whether trust can be built before a young person is pulled deeper into the justice system.

The clearest local value came from the way the conference lined up with an existing Orange County effort, Building Bridges Initiative. Isabel Lopez, the program’s founder, attended with Youth Advocate Programs director Jorge Retamar, reinforcing a model that treats youth violence prevention as relationship work, not just enforcement. Earlier Building Bridges sessions had already asked young participants to develop a project or initiative that could help bridge the gap between police and the community, specifically with youth, while also combating gun violence.

That matters in Orange County because the sheriff’s office has already invested in the approach. County leaders previously approved $40,000 in state public-safety funds to support the sheriff’s Building Bridges program, a countywide youth intervention effort. The funding shows the conference appearance was not an isolated outreach moment, but part of a broader local strategy to keep young people connected to trusted adults, family support and public systems before problems become arrests or court cases.

The county’s own youth infrastructure points in the same direction. The Orange County Youth Bureau says its mission is to promote positive youth development through county-wide integrated planning, funding, monitoring, coordinating and developing youth and family services for Orange County youth ages 0 to 21. In that context, the sheriff’s participation at a statewide juvenile-justice gathering looked less like symbolic attendance and more like a move to align public safety with the county’s youth-development priorities.

Arteta’s long career in Orange County adds another layer. He has served county residents since November 9, 1992, rising from corrections into the criminal division before becoming sheriff. His office has emphasized intelligence-led policing and community engagement, including efforts tied to educating future generations and building relationships with children. The Youth Justice Conference, which the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services uses to convene state and local juvenile-justice partners around research-based reform, gave Orange County another chance to bring that philosophy into a statewide setting. For local youth, the gain was a seat in a conversation that treated trust, support and accountability as public-safety tools.