Rosen: Santa Clara County’s invisible police squad saves lives

Santa Clara County is one of the safest counties in the United States, served with dedication by a dozen traditional law enforcement agencies. We know them well. San Jose Police Department with its 100% homicide clearance rate. The heroic Gilroy police officers who took on the mass shooter at the Garlic Festival. The Sunnyvale ‘Badass Detective’ who solved several high-profile cold cases. There isn’t one police force in this county that I don’t have full confidence in protecting our community with excellence, integrity and professionalism.

There is a 13th law enforcement agency that you may not know about — the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation (BOI). The BOI solves fraud cases, dismantles smash-and-grab retail crews, fights human trafficking, uncovers environmental crimes and independently investigates child deaths and any time a police officer shoots and kills someone. Within the BOI is a squad who saves lives every day by taking ghost guns and assault rifles from those who attack their partners, suicidal teens, gang members and gun traffickers.

With five DA investigators and a handful of other officers, the BOI’s Gun Violence Task Force (GVTF) has taken close to 500 guns off the streets, with 215 just last year. What were those guns? They were untraceable ghost guns, assault rifles, and even machine guns. Who were those people? Weapon traffickers — gang members, felons, drug dealers  and people intent on shooting illegal weapons and robbing others — never to be caught.

Taking possession of those guns is not for the faint of heart. The tactics can be so dangerous that sometimes, the squad is assisted by SJPD’s vaunted SWAT team – called MERGE. DA Lieutenant Michael Montonye, a former member of MERGE and a medal of valor winner who spent more than three decades as a cop, leads BOI’s team. Mike says he has never seen so many weapons on the street.

Last month, a Gilroy man ignored a judge’s order to give up his guns. He drunkenly threatened his terrified ex-girlfriend and their toddler. He had four previous gun crimes. Now it was time for Lt. Montonye and his task force to go to work before someone got hurt, or killed.

What they found was another illegal gun, an AR-15 assault rifle, hidden in the trunk of his car at a barber shop.

How many lives has BOI’s GVTF saved? There are no statistics that can measure the drive-bys prevented, the abusive person who has no weapon to grab during his fury, or the mass mall shootings that get stopped in the parking lot. When county supervisors unanimously helped create the task force three years ago, one proudly said, “The more firearms that we remove from people who shouldn’t have them or aren’t properly taking care of them, the more lives we’re going to save.”

Earlier this year, the GVTF squad searched a young adult’s bedroom and found two working 3D weapon printers and 27 finished or almost finished guns in his closet. Some of them were modified to act as machine guns. Where were those guns headed? Who would they have been aimed at? Who might have been their unintended victims?

The county has suffered three mass shootings and several workplace massacres. Armed street gangs have killed dozens. Weapons are at the heart of most murders and many rapes, robberies and domestic violence acts. Please spend a moment thinking about the people whose job it is to literally take those guns from the criminals who intend to use them. They have my deepest admiration and gratitude. I hope they have yours.

 Jeff Rosen is the Santa Clara County District Attorney.