A state transparency law is shedding light on the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s cache of semi-automatic weapons – and publicizing the lesser known police agencies inside California’s top prosecutor offices.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s office this year disclosed the possession of 20 AR-15s since 2022, reporting that none were used and 10 were purchased for $20,000 between June of this year and July of last year. Rosen’s office disclosed the weapons under Assembly Bill 481, a post-George Floyd state law that aims to raise awareness of military-grade police armories.
But the law covers more than a conventional police or sheriff’s department. California’s District Attorney offices have their own bureaus of sworn officers, known as DA investigators, who pick up criminal cases handed in by police for follow-up and charging decisions. These bureaus may not fit the typical cop description but initiate probes, make tactical plans and arrest armed suspects. Its investigators come from high-level law enforcement backgrounds – and they’re authorized to be armed.
“Few people recognize that DA investigators are effectively police officers,” Steven Tull, a former chief of San Francisco’s DA investigator bureau, told San José Spotlight. “Many folks you ask would probably say, ‘What?'”
Becoming the standard
In Santa Clara County, Rosen’s investigator bureau has become a full-fledged police force rivaling the size of some neighboring departments. His office counts about 90 sworn officers – fewer than the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and San Jose Police Department, but roughly on par with Milpitas and Palo Alto.
But where city police and the sheriff have jurisdiction and resource limits, Rosen’s bureau is a force-multiplier responder to increasingly borderless crimes. His bureau has led the state in seizing guns from criminal suspects, while cracking down on human trafficking rings and high-technology fraud. The bureau also exists to probe police department brutality and misconduct, as opposed to officers being investigated by their peers.
Rosen’s DA investigators are the “bridge” to other police departments in Silicon Valley, according to Desiree Thompson, a DA investigator lieutenant who works cases such as sexual assault and homicide.
“With all the crimes that come across my desk, I might see a pattern occurring across the county because I’m reading reports from Santa Clara PD and Palo Alto PD and recognizing there are similarities here,” Thompson told San Jose Spotlight. “That bridge doesn’t exist anywhere else in Santa Clara County.”
Tull, also a retired Oakland police captain, said he understands why Santa Clara County’s DA investigator bureau — a much larger bureau compared to San Francisco’s jurisdiction size — would have AR-15s for high risk operations. But he cautions against that becoming a standard for DA offices across California.
“It’s possible if you’re a large Bureau of Investigations with the manpower to train consistently — if that training is certified, measurable and transparent,” Tull told San José Spotlight. “My personal belief is that DA investigators should primarily support attorneys through follow-up, looking for evidence and so forth.”
DA investigator bureaus usually pull in experienced police personnel from a variety of law enforcement agencies. That could mean different philosophies and inconsistent training on weapons use at some bureaus, he said.
“In that case, military equipment is best left to traditional police agencies,” Tull said. “I can’t imagine a host agency in San Francisco — for example, the police department — who would feel comfortable with the DA’s office using specialized military equipment to execute specialized operations.”
Jonathan Raven, a former chief deputy district attorney in Yolo County, says it’s not unusual for DA investigators to arm up and perform proactive operations.
“They’re also interviewing people who can be pretty dangerous,” Raven told San José Spotlight. “Generally the investigators are in plain clothes, not in police uniform, but they’re going out and having to do gumshoe investigative work.”
Shift in enforcement
Local law enforcement armories have amped up since the North Hollywood shootout of 1997, when cops during the battle found their standard pistols and shotguns ineffective against the body armor of bank robbers. It sparked a nationwide push to arm rank-and-file officers with semi-automatic weapons. The conversation kicked back up after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in 2020, when communities took a microscope to the tactical role of their police departments. California lawmakers passed an unprecedented military weapons disclosure law in 2021.
Thompson went into law enforcement in the aftermath of the North Hollywood shootout. She joined Rosen’s bureau after 15 years working for the San Jose Police Department and two with the FBI. Much of those years Thompson spent on detective work.
She points to her current colleagues’ efforts on the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force, which seizes weapons from domestic violence suspects and confiscates untraceable, handmade “ghost guns” through investigations and arrests. The work is perilous – especially when dealing with people who evade law enforcement.
“That is why having weapons is important,” Thompson said. “As we tackle large events in Santa Clara County, we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. We hope it doesn’t happen but we recognize what has happened in the past.”
Separate police force
Santa Clara County in 2023 led the state in gun violence restraining orders, which police can request to proactively confiscate guns from suspects. DA investigators were also involved in responding to San Jose’s largest mass shooting at the VTA rail yard in 2021.
Raven, who worked for 16 years under Yolo County DA Jeff Reisig and retired in 2023, now helps lead a statewide DA interest group, the California District Attorneys Association. He said all DA investigators must receive peace officer and weapons training.
“It is a separate police force under the DA — each of these bureaus has a chief. Santa Clara County is like every other DA’s office in the state,” Raven told San José Spotlight.
Rosen’s bureau isn’t the largest. DA offices in San Diego and Los Angeles counties count more than 130 DA investigators. But Santa Clara County’s DA investigators have been making a splash.
Rosen’s DA investigator task forces include the Regional Allied Enforcement Computer Team (REACT), which has built a global reputation for its historic cryptocurrency theft and sim-swapping investigations. Rosen also has DA Investigators on the bureau’s human trafficking task force.
Thompson said her office’s investigators come from throughout the Bay Area and even Southern California.
“This is a very unique place to work as a police officer,” Thompson told San José Spotlight. “I pinch myself sometimes when I walk down the hall here. The level of experience in the bureau is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in law enforcement.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story said AR-15s used by DA investigators were fully automatic.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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