The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is expanding its Gun Violence Unit, which deals with non-fatal, gun-related incidents.
The expansion hopes to address the issue of gun violence in Hillsborough County.
When the unit was introduced 15 years ago, it had one lawyer on staff, now there will be five. They will all be full-time and work solely on gun violence-related cases.
"Gun violence is such a specific area of prosecution," said State Attorney Suzy Lopez. "It's not like prosecuting a burglary of a dwelling, for example, or a grand theft motor vehicle. And what we were having was lawyers who were prosecuting those types of charges, also prosecuting these very specific, very unique charges."
She said one focus will be the number of guns stolen from vehicles.
According to Lopez, 143 guns were reported stolen from cars last year in a six-month period, with 87% coming from unlocked cars.
"We encourage people, if you have to store your gun in your car, lock your car door," Lopez said. "Usually it's young people going and trying car doors in front of people's houses. They're not going to waste their time breaking into the car."
The full-time lawyers will include a chief, deputy chief and three lead trial attorneys. Lopez said they will get involved in cases in the early stages, even going to crime scenes with law enforcement.
The unit also includes an investigator and three legal aids.
Lopez said this expansion will come at no extra cost.
"In early March, the 13th Judicial Circuit went down a division in felony," Lopez said. "We went from having eight to seven felony divisions. We were able to create this unit at no cost to the office."
