Guns Surrender Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

The Gun Surrender Program is an effort by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the Minneapolis Police Department and other criminal justice partners to improve enforcement of Minnesota laws that require defendants in many domestic violence and stalking cases to surrender their firearms. Ordering the gun surrender first requires knowing whether the defendant possesses a gun. The dispatchers who receive the calls for help from domestic violence victims and dispatch the police officers are in a unique position to learn if the suspect owns a firearm. In 2012, prosecutors from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office trained all three shifts of Minneapolis Police dispatchers on how to ask about guns without the suspect knowing what was being asked of the victim.