New State Report Highlights Success of San Mateo County Gun Violence Prevention Program Two Years After Launch

REDWOOD CITY – On September 30, the Judicial Council of California published its annual report on the state Firearms Relinquishment Grant Program, which highlights significant achievements accomplished by the San Mateo County Gun Violence Prevention Program since its launch just over two years ago.

The report for Fiscal Year 2023–2024 includes key data outcomes analyzed from a 13-month period between February 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. Only one of eight courts to receive state grant funding, the San Mateo County Superior Court works in direct partnership with the District Attorney’s Office and local law enforcement agencies to implement the Gun Violence Prevention Program. The “Report on the Firearms Relinquishment Grant Program for 2023–24” features the following milestones:

• Running firearm background checks on all restrained persons;
• Expanding Self-Help services by hiring an attorney to assist with restraining orders in-person and through LiveChat;
• Informing every party of the firearm prohibitions and relinquishment procedures in court;
• Providing Self-Help services in the courtroom, including immediate preparation of restraining order forms following each court hearing and explaining the next steps in the process;
• Setting compliance review hearings in all Family Law departments;
• Providing county-specific information on how to relinquish firearms;
• Assigning two detectives to investigate all court-referred cases;
• Implementing protocols that have led to an increase in the number of proofs of relinquishment filed;
• Creating a task force to coordinate relinquishment efforts in the county; and
• Exploring expansion of a program to cover Criminal cases, with the potential of providing additional resources to the Probation Department.

In the first two years of the program, 410 firearms have been removed from prohibited persons. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Susan Greenberg remarked on the success and growing impact of the program, noting, “After two-years, we have fine-tuned the program to become the gold standard in California for enforcing firearm relinquishment in civil restraining order matters. Other courts are consulting with us to create their own programs and replicate our procedures. We are eager to share our knowledge and experience in order to keep not just our community safe, but every community.”