SEPTEMBER DISARM SEARCHES NET 207 ARRESTS, 109 FIREARMS AND OVER $17.5 MILLION IN DRUGS AND CASH CONFISCATIONS

 

 

 

       

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:  Tony Bell, Communications Deputy Office:     (213) 974-5555  Cell: (213) 215-5176 E-mail:     tbell@bos.lacounty.gov

      October 26, 2010                                                                 For Immediate Release

 

SEPTEMBER DISARM SEARCHES NET 207 ARRESTS, 109 FIREARMS AND OVER $17.5 MILLION IN DRUGS AND CASH CONFISCATIONS

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY — During the month of September, D.I.S.A.R.M. Officers confiscated 109 weapons – including 34 handguns, 4 assault rifles, and 21 rifles/shotguns, $17.5 million in illegal drugs, and arrested 207 probationers during 1,660 unannounced searches of residences, persons, vehicles, and businesses, announced Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. 

 

The searches were conducted through the Probation Department’s D.I.S.A.R.M. (Developing Increased Safety through Arms Reduction Management) program, initiated by Supervisor Antonovich following the tragic August 1999 shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center and the murder of a postal worker by Buford Furrow, an armed felon on probation from Washington State.

 

The D.I.S.A.R.M. program entails pairing Deputy Probation Officers with local law enforcement personnel to perform unannounced searches of probationers and their homes, as a condition of probation, and targets the confiscation of guns, drugs, and other contraband.

 

Since its implementation in February of 2000, the D.I.S.A.R.M. program has seized over 6,500 weapons and more than $188 million in illegal drugs and drug money, and resulted in 13,000 arrests.  Ten percent of probationers searched in this program have been found to be out of compliance with their terms of probation. 

 

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