District Attorney's Plans Becoming a Reality

Seth Williams’ plans for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office are starting to come to fruition. Instead of handling cases based on the nature of the charges, Williams wants to handle cases geographically in the city. This way cases will be assigned to assistant district attorneys based on where the crime occurs and not what the nature of the crime is. The recently-elected district attorney’s plan calls for a team of assistant DA’s to handle cases based on geography within the city’s six police divisions. The number of assistant DA’s assigned will be based on the crime rate in each police division.

Philadelphia’s first black district attorney believes that a plan of geography-based prosecution makes as much sense as the geography-based police patrol used in the city. Working in and becoming familiar with a certain neighborhood over a long period of time can only be beneficial. Prosecutors will be able to build relationships with the schools, community organizations, churches, businesses and political leaders in the neighborhood. They will also become familiar with the police detective and police patrol in the neighborhood that they will rely on for testimony in court. Trouble spots and any trends will become more apparent as they continue to work in the neighborhood.

(Photo courtesy of Associated Press)

By Andrew Wagner and Josh Buzi, Group 39, Spot News