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Seattle COPS Program Cleans Streets
by Targeting Young Gun Offenders April 17, 2000 A small percentage of serious and
chronic juvenile offenders commit the majority of serious juvenile firearm
offenses and getting these juvenile firearm offenders “off the street” is a
priority for the city of Seattle. Working through a COPS grant, Seattle police
and the King County Prosecutor’s office have implemented a joint effort and
created a specialized juvenile firearms prosecutor position in order to stem
juvenile firearms violence by focusing on effective procedures necessary to the
successful prosecution of weapons cases. The initiative will be highlighted
later this year when the Conference of Mayors publishes Best Practices in
Programs Promoting Gun Safety and Education, a publication funded by the COPS
Office of the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 1996, when the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney (DPA) position was created, the prosecutor has focused on building stronger cases against the most serious juvenile firearm offenders. The prosecutor identifies and tracks the juvenile offenders throughout the judicial process; improves the efficiency of every stage of prosecution; coordinates law enforcement and prosecution efforts; provides training and legal advice for law enforcement personnel; and performs statistical analysis of juvenile firearm offenses in previous years compared to the grant funded year. In addition, a training program for
Seattle Police Department officers and detectives to improve the quality of
cases they submitted for prosecution was implemented, as well as special
training for Seattle Police Gang Unit and Juvenile detectives. Officers and
detectives were instructed on specific information needed for the prosecutor to
file a case and they were given suggestions on ways to improve their
investigation and report writing. The training sessions provided a valuable link
between SPD and the prosecutor and served to open a channel of communication
used extensively by both agencies. The juvenile firearms prosecutor is continuing the work begun under the original grant and has expanded the program focus to include violent juvenile crime and violence in schools. He is also working to coordinate investigation and prosecution efforts with the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He has been providing training around the country about effective prosecution of serious juvenile offenses. Measuring Effectiveness The prosecutor case file for each criminal case filed in Juvenile Court files contains a copy of the police report, copies of all court documents, and information on the juvenile’s criminal history, as well as details of what happened to the case in the juvenile court system. Under the COPS grant, a computer database system was designed by the grant prosecutor for tracking firearm offenders through the court system. The database allowed the prosecutor to quickly and easily monitor, evaluate, and prepare cases for court hearings and identify the chronic and serious offenders. The database also included data on all King County juvenile firearm cases for the preceding three years, generating baseline statistics used to evaluate the effectiveness of the grant position. Significant improvements were made in virtually every aspect of the prosecution of juvenile firearm offenders: cases were filed faster; filing backlogs were eliminated; conviction rates at trial increased; the number of cases going to trial doubled; the successful adjudication rate (i.e., cases which either pled guilty, were found guilty, or were declined) increased; the pretrial dismissal rate was reduced by one-half; more juveniles were detained at first appearance; the number of exceptional sentences imposed nearly doubled; the number of juveniles successfully declined for adult prosecution for the most serious offenses increased; police investigation and incident report quality improved; and communication improved between the prosecutor, judges, police, and probation officers. Program Financing The original funding for the juvenile prosecutor position was through a 1995 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS. Ten cities nationwide received Youth Firearms Violence Initiative grants for targeted and focused law enforcement efforts directed at combating the rise of youth firearm violence. Current funding is provided as part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG). King County and the City of Seattle jointly applied for this grant and will jointly apply to renew the grant and also to renew this program for the next funding cycle. Community Involvement Community safety is an important
factor in City and County strategies toward youth violence, both in terms of
determining where to focus resources and for feedback on how successful our
efforts are in improving public safety. In 1994, the Washington State
Legislature passed a new law making it a felony level offense for juveniles
under the age of 18 to own, posses, or control a firearm of any kind in the
state. The law also increased the consequences for gun-related crimes committed
by youth. This was the impetus for the new grant funded program to improve
effective of prosecution for juvenile weapons offenses. Sharing Major Lessons Collaboration between agencies can take much more time than might be anticipated, especially when the partnership is a new one. Working out program issues and details between agencies and including all the appropriate players can be a complicated process, even when both agencies have agreed to collaborate on a new program. Even though improving police/prosecutor communication potentially has a big payoff for both agencies in terms of stronger cases, a new program has to prove itself. For the juvenile prosecutor project, the success of the program was ultimately determined by the selection of the right prosecutor for the project, someone with a real interest and enthusiasm for the particular project. Also key to the project’s success was that SPD adjusted its program to fit the talents and skills of the particular prosecutor chosen for the project, and the Prosecutor’s Office allowed him the freedom to work with SPD to refine the program to best meet the goals of the grant. Sustainability is one of the most
challenging issues related to grant funded programs. A successful program will
not necessarily become the new “business as usual” for the agencies involved
once the pilot program is over. It can be very difficult, for a number of
reasons, including limited resources, competing priorities, and organizational
structure, to get a commitment of resources from the agencies involved to
sustain a program. Advice for Mayors Support and direction from the top level of all agencies is needed to make the collaboration a success and to ensure the continuation of the program. A specialized prosecutor program doesn’t have to cost much. The juvenile prosecutor program included a database component. Another agency interested in starting a similar program could use the database information from this pilot project to guide the creation of its own program without duplicating the database component of the grant. An agency could restructure to create a half-time prosecutor position with similar duties to perform the law enforcement liaison and prosecutor functions of this position. For more information about this program contact: Julie Baker, Acting Manager This article is part of The U.S.
Conference of Mayors Institute for Community Policing program, funded by the
U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing. For more
information about the program, please contact Kathy Amoroso on the Conference of
Mayors staff at 202/861-6728.
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