North California officials propose task team to curb gun-related domestic violence

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25 -- Officials from Santa Clara County in Northern California are considering creating a new task team composed of law enforcement members to curb rising domestic violence in connection with gun crime, a local TV outlet said Monday.
   Santa Clara Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez is pushing for a plan to set aside about 750,000 U.S. dollars every year to fund the new team to complete their mission of intervening in domestic disputes in a timely way before such altercations turn violent or fatal by family members who have possession of guns, the KTVU TV reported.
   The local officials are trying to close a gap where police officers usually do not have a legally coordinated way to prevent suspects of domestic violence from carrying weapons, said the KTVU.
   It cited a case in June 2019 when a frantically distressed family member shot and killed four members of his own family in a domestic dispute before committing suicide in San Jose, a major technology hub in California's Bay Area, about 79 km south of San Francisco.
   Such cases of domestic violence-turned massacre have increased steadily in the past decade, Santa Clara officials said.
   "We know that any gun that's out there in the hands of someone illegally has the potential for violence," the KTVU quoted Deputy Chief of the San Jose Police Department Heather Randol as saying.
   The new task team will be composed of three analysts, a prosecutor and an investigator, according to the officials.  Xinhua