NCJ Number
184879
Journal
National Institute of Justice Journal Issue: 231 Dated: August 1996 Pages: 35-40
Date Published
August 1996
Length
6 pages
Annotation
A community prosecution experiment in the district attorney's office of Multnomah County, Oregon, illustrates the extent to which community prosecution is a radical departure from conventional notions about dealing with crime.
Abstract
In late 1990, the district attorney assigned a senior deputy to work for 1 year on a neighborhood-based prosecution project in one of Portland's inner-city districts. District business leaders mobilized a response by forming a business association and creating a public safety committee. This committee drafted an action plan that listed specific strategies and tactics, such as better lighting, the coordination of private security, and more visible police presence. In addition, the committee made an unusual request for the assignment of a special prosecutor to the district. The committee wanted the prosecutor to address its concern about the lack of consequences in downtown courts for criminal activity that adversely affected district businesses. The idea of a special prosecutor caught on, and other neighborhood district attorneys (NDAs) were assigned. In general, NDAs worked with citizens and police to identify ways of controlling street behavior and low-level disorders that threatened neighborhood safety. Once a problem was brought under control, NDAs continued to monitor the situation themselves or through a network of citizens and police officers. The NDAs were effective in creating two-way communication to link themselves to both citizens and police officers. 4 notes and 3 photographs