Bureau of Investigation
The Bureau of Investigation is the law enforcement component of the District Attorney’s Office. The Bureau’s 117 District Attorney Investigators (DAIs), 43 Public Assistance Fraud Investigators (PAFIs), and 13 process servers are assigned to eight divisions in the DA’s Office. During 2010 the Bureau also took over the management and oversight of Trial Support Services (TSS), which consists of 10 technicians who provide services to all offices of the District Attorney. Under the direction of Chief Paula Robinson, Assistant Chief Carlos Gonzalez, and Deputy Chief Butch Etheridge in 2010, the Bureau of Investigation continued to be aggressive in efforts to support the prosecutorial mission.
During 2010, Bureau investigators handled more than five thousand cases that required completing investigative service requests that resulted with the service of 302 search warrants, and the arrests of 119 defendants. District Attorney Investigators were also involved in:
- 4 new gang injunction orders
- 18 wire taps
- 502 surveillance operations
- 45 witness protection operations
In 2010 the Bureau’s Public Assistance Fraud Division made some changes in the processing of investigations to increase efficiency and consistency in the program. The production and savings due to anti fraud efforts increased over the previous year. Public Assistance Investigators handled over 28,000 cases for an ‘Annual Projected Savings’ of $70 million dollars. Investigators also responded to 7,767 Child Protective Services records checks.
The Bureau’s Child Abduction Unit (CAU) conducted 177 investigations and was successful in the recovery of 88 abducted children from around the country. In addition, CAU was involved in 23 cases involving children being abducted from, or taken to other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Australia, Germany, England, France, Morocco, Iran, and Cote D’Ivore (Formerly the Ivory Coast)
In August of 2010 the CAU implemented a new ‘Visitation Reporting System’ which is accessible via the D.A.’s website. This system allows parents to report violations of visitation orders on-line. This reporting system has proven to be very effective saving D.A. staff and parents a great deal of time on these very difficult cases. There have been 271 violations reported on this site to date.
In 2010, Bureau investigators were involved in the investigation of 14 officer-involved shootings.
AWARDS
Awards to the Bureau and its DAIs during the year included:
- DAI Don Holmes, San Diego Police Officers Association “Officer of the Year”
- DAI Rich Wisseman, Crime Stoppers Award
- DAI Bobby Dean, Blue Knights Award, San Diego Crime Commission
- PAI Tom Morgans, Officer of the Year Award, El Cajon Elks Club
- DAI Eric Farwell, Khamp Thongrivong, San Diego Padres Officer of Year
- DAI Brian Szymonik, Scottish Rite Officer of Year
- DAI John Diaz, Deputy District Attorneys Association Investigator of Year
