The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office spent almost $100,000 in 2016 on weapons for its Bureau of Investigation, an amount greater than that spent by three other Southern California prosecutors’ offices and almost as much as the San Diego Police Department.

The office won’t say exactly what they purchased with the money.

But Alex Garcia, a former investigator who spent 17 years in the bureau, said the expenditure reflects a new approach on how to run the unit from Chief Investigator Miguel Rosario, a former San Diego police captain who took over in early 2016.

Garcia said that Rosario has brought more of a police-oriented culture to the bureau’s work, which has historically done more investigative work on economic and insurance fraud, public corruption, and gang case prosecutions.


“This is the new chief’s theme,” said Garcia, who retired in February. “That they are a front line police department — and he’s arming them to do that — but they’re not.”

Steve Walker, communications director for District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, said on Friday the purchases were unrelated to any change in philosophy at the bureau.

In a statement, Walker said the office had to replace aging and outdated equipment, some of which was 15 to 20 years old.

“The 2016 purchase is unrelated to any change in leadership or policy within the Bureau or the District Attorney’s Office,” he said.


The expenditure by Dumanis’ office is more than prosecution offices spent on weapons in counties both larger and smaller than San Diego, which has 121 investigators.

I didn’t need a rifle to do my job. Alex Garcia, a retired San Diego County DA investigator

The Los Angeles County district attorney bought 20 Colt 6945 CBQ rifles at a cost of $1,125 each, or about $22,000 total. That was for an office that has about 300 investigators, more than twice as many as San Diego.

Riverside County, with 107 investigators, said it spent $58,568 in fiscal 2016. Like San Diego, the Riverside office declined to specify what it purchased, citing a provision of the state Public Records Act that exempts agencies from releasing information if it determines the public interest in keeping it secret outweighs the public interest in disclosure.


The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office spent $8,674 on 10 Ruger Mini 14 rifles and 60 ammunition magazines for the weapons. That office employs 50 investigators.

The $99,937 spent by San Diego was more than the Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino district attorneys spent combined in 2016. The San Diego Police Department, with about 1,800 sworn officers, spent $143,000 on weapons last year, according to records the city provided.

Walker said comparing San Diego to the other counties is misleading. “Because the 2016 purchase replaced outdated equipment, the expenditure would likely not be a direct comparison to purchases during the same time frame made by the three other DA Offices you mention,” he said.

Garcia filed a Public Records Act request seeking the information on how much the department spent on purchasing rifles, then provided the information to The San Diego Union-Tribune.


In the past, he said, the bureau had a few rifles and some shotguns at its disposal, but he could not recall that they were ever used in his tenure there.

“In the 17 years, there was never any type of firefight or altercation,” he said. He said he declined an offer to have one of the new weapons assigned to him. “I didn’t need a rifle to do my job,” Garcia said.

District attorney investigators are peace officers, many of them former police officers, who perform a variety of tasks including interviewing witnesses and serving subpoenas and search warrants. They also assist prosecutors assigned to cases when someone has been charged, tracking down witnesses and helping in the preparation of a trial or hearing.

As people acquire more sophisticated weaponry, you want to be in a position where you are at least similarly situated. Mike Donovan with the California District Attorney Investigators’ Association


According to the San Diego County district attorney’s annual report last year, the most common task performed by investigators was serving subpoenas, which was done more than 11,000 times. The report also said investigators participated in 458 surveillance operations and served 364 search warrants.

Walker said investigators can be put in “dangerous situations” and having the right equipment allows them to respond to threats such as active shooters.

Mike Donovan, the treasurer and training coordinator for the California District Attorney Investigators’ Association, said it is “not uncommon at all” for district attorney offices to augment and update their armory for investigators, including with military-style rifles.

“As we’ve moved forward, we do a lot more things that we didn’t use to do in the old days. We are encountering a lot more dangerous types of people,” Donovan said.


Investigators also now face situations where suspects are well armed, he said. “We didn’t use to carry rifles, and then we started encountering rifles,” Donovan said. “As people acquire more sophisticated weaponry, you want to be in a position where you are at least similarly situated.”


Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com