| From Abandoned Lots to Guns, Community
Prosecution Takes Care of It All
In Dallas, the city attorneys are doing their jobs a little
differently these days.
The city attorney's office reorganized 2 years ago,
incorporating community prosecution efforts to better fight
low-level crime and solve community-based problems. The desire
to engage residents and coordinate city services led the office
to the Weed and Seed site for guidance. Using some Weed and
Seed strategies, the office formed the Community Advocacy Division
(CAD), which has already expanded, formed partnerships, and
enlisted the trust of the community. As part of its community
prosecution efforts, CAD takes an atypical approach to prosecution,
using code violations and city ordinances to address weedy
lots and abandoned shopping carts and speeches to address gun
crime.
"When I first started I would laugh at a high weeds
ticket," said Roxann Pais, now Dallas's chief community
prosecutor. "But now I think vacant structure, kids have
to walk by it, there might be prostitution or drugs . . . .
It's a better understanding of the street and that makes us
better prosecutors."
Shopping carts were something that residents viewed as a real
nuisance and were difficult to deal with before the advent
of CAD. Because the office has the legislative authority to
write city ordinances, shopping carts are no longer a neighborhood
eyesore.
This new legal approach also saves the city money because
the city does not have to use other resources to address these
kinds of issues. In the past, for example, police would have
to commit personnel and time to go undercover to show that
a dilapidated house was being used as a place to buy and sell
drugs. CAD uses the law and doesn't have to deal with
red tape. It simply shuts buildings down for code violations;
in fact, full-time code enforcement officers work with community
prosecutors.
"We use different tools," Pais explained. "We
can make things happen faster."
Pais believes that community prosecution offices function
very much like legal think tanks. According to Pais, communities
should consider lobbying for a community prosecution office
because residents and police officers may have great ideas
but often run into legal obstacles. Also, citizens don't
have the right tools, and police officers have to deal with
bureaucracy. Community prosecutors, however, have the tools,
power, and access to change things.
Pais also is proud of the significant inroads community prosecutors
have already made in combating gun crime. In partnership with
the U.S. Attorney's Office, city attorney's office,
and Project
Safe Neighborhoods (a program that networks local programs
that target gun crime), Pais makes a monthly presentation to
parolees and probationers about the consequences of committing
a gun crime. Since the program began 18 months ago, gun crimes
among adult parolees and probationers have dropped by 34 percent.
In addition to statistical successes, there have been more
personal ones as well. One client was so grateful to the community
prosecutors that she wrote poems to them, the judge, and social
workers. In one poem, she writes that she has changed her ways
and is trying to quit drinking alcohol: "I won't
say I made it, I won't tell that lie, but because of
you all, I damn sure will try!"
In the past 10 years, community prosecution has grown significantly
nationwide. Pais and city attorney Madeleine Johnson turned
their idea of community prosecution into a model program. The
office now has eight attorneys and recently opened Dallas' first
community court. The court, located inside a community center,
handles Class C misdemeanors on a fast track, scheduling court
dates within a week of ticketing and usually meting out community
service as punishment. Preliminary results appear promising.
Pais credits Weed and Seed for a large part of her office's
success. Weed and Seed places great importance on community
support and involvement, which have been integral to CAD's
development. Although the office, situated in the South Dallas
Weed and Seed area, took advantage of Weed and Seed's
built-in partnerships and community groundwork, it is supported
by other federal grants and so did not take any funding away
from Weed and Seed projects.
For further information, contact:
Roxann
Pais
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