Chief Mike Hamel is the retired Chief from the Irvine Police Department. Notably, Chief Hamel has considerable experience in the areas of organizational leadership and management, strategic planning, critical incident management and investigations. In addition, he has over twenty years of teaching and training experience in the areas of leadership development, victim advocacy, and other topics.

Throughout his tenure, Chief Hamel richly invested in his community, implementing several programs to further enhance cooperation and trust, especially with minority communities. He oversaw the design and implementation of the nation’s first Chinese Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program taught entirely in Mandarin, as well as an online hate crime reporting portal. Chief Hamel also served as a member of the Orange County Human Relations Commission for his entire tenure as Chief. He also invested resources in the police department’s emergency management division and implemented a comprehensive city evacuation plan in collaboration with the City’s GIS Department, the Orange County Fire Authority and other City leaders.

Chief Hamel is a graduate of the International Association of Chiefs’ of Police Leadership in Police Organizations program, POST Command College and the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute.

Chief Hamel holds a Master of Science in Applied Computer Science from the University of West Georgia, a Master of Public Administration from California State Long Beach, and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Ecology with emphasis in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine.