KEEPING MARIN SAFE: A Move Toward Community-Oriented Prosecution

By Paula Kamena

While many good things are happening at the District Attorney's Office now, every organization can be brought to a higher level of efficiency and organization and can benefit from fresh views and new looks. I intend to bring that new look to the Marin District Attorney's Office. While it is important for the District Attorney to know what is happening in the courtroom, it is also important for the District Attorney to know what is happening in the community. Keeping Marin Safe means taking a tough stance on crime while pairing prosecution with prevention. Preventative efforts save lives, livelihood and communities, as well as tax dollars that do not need to be spent on future prosecutions.

As Criminal Division Chief, I have secured a 97% Superior Court Conviction rate, driving the crime rate down and the prosecution of violent criminals up. I have enforced zero tolerance on sexual predators, gang crimes, hate crimes, and drunk driving. Prosecutors who work for me do not sentence bargain any felony. Because I am so concerned about domestic violence, I wrote the county's domestic violence policy, and doubled the domestic violence unit. Our efforts in the arena of Domestic Violence are outlined in another position paper located at this same website. I invite you to review it.

As District Attorney, I will continue to:

• Ardently prosecute violent and serious felons

• Vigorously prosecute domestic batterers

• Keep habitual sexual predators in prison

• Make prosecution of Elder abuse and Child Abuse a top

• Have zero tolerance for hate crimes and gang violence

While many good things are happening at the District Attorney's Office now, every organization can be brought to a higher level of efficiency and organization and can benefit from fresh views and new looks. I intend to bring that new look to the Marin District Attorney's Office. While it is important for the District Attorney to know what is happening in the courtroom, it is also important for the District Attorney to know what is happening in the community. Keeping Marin Safe means taking a tough stance on crime while pairing prosecution with prevention. Preventative efforts save lives, livelihood and communities, as well as tax dollars that do not need to be spent on future prosecutions.

By prevention, I do not mean that deputy prosecutors should be taken out of the courtroom and be made into social workers! Rather, the District Attorney must be a bridge between the community and law enforcement. The District Attorney needs to be in touch with what the community wants, where the trouble is brewing, and how law enforcement can be unified to help put out the fires and supplant them with fertile growth.

I have many ideas on how the District Attorney can be a leader in the community. A striking example comes to mind with the recent incidents of school violence. We do not want this to happen in Marin.

My candidacy for Marin County District Attorney is based on keeping Marin safe, by taking a tough stand on crime while pairing prosecution with prevention. Our schools are one of the most important places in our community that must be kept safe for our children. Like all caring adults, the recent series of tragic shooting sprees in schools across the country has shocked and sadden me. Although these instances are relatively rare, the horror that they inflict on the families, schools, and community is so great that we must do everything in our power to ensure this does not occur in Marin.

The District Attorney's office can provide a leadership role in organizing and pooling our community resources to give our parents, school officials, and law enforcement the information and tools they need to keep our schools safe. The support I have from Marin Law Enforcement makes me uniquely well-suited to lead such an effort.

My specific plan is based on prevention. A pattern of warning signs is emerging in the behavior of the perpetrators of these crimes. We all need to be aware of these signs so that we can heed the warning. We need to take these signs seriously.

I will call for the establishment of a County-Wide Task Force on School Safety. Tasks will include:

1) Identifying warning signs, using relationship between law enforcement and schools effectively, creating multi-discipline protocol for reducing risk of individuals exhibiting behavior, e.g., recommendations on gun safety for family members, enhanced school safety requirements. After the initial effort, this group should require a limited amount of Law Enforcement resources on an ongoing basis.

2) Identify the characteristics and behavior patterns of perpetrators using all research tools available to law enforcement, schools, Community Mental Health. By studying the tragedies that have occurred, and any available analysis done by other local, state or Federal agencies, we can create an easy to understand description of the warning signs that potential perpetrators may exhibit.

3) Conduct training for teachers and administrators to spot warning signs using succinct and specific examples.

4) Maintain a heightened awareness of likely perpetrators currently in juvenile justice system. Being respectful of their privacy, provide counseling to address and resolve underlying issues but also to take steps to diminish risk of enabling conditions, i.e., availability of firearms.

5) Coordinate with Animal Control. Evaluate animal cruelty as a warning sign. If useful, link animal control authorities and law enforcement to receive reports of animal mutilation and seriously investigate to identify the perpetrators and intercede if necessary with risk reduction protocol.

6) Enhance relationship between local law enforcement and schools. Our Law Enforcement officers currently have excellent relationships with the schools. These relationships could be expanded to include a more active and on-going role in weapons instances including follow up with family and friends.

But, my ideas are not limited to school violence. Here are some of my others ideas to take our office in a new direction:

• Establish community-oriented prosecution so that every community within Marin can be safe. Law Enforcement in Marin should be one team -- schools, social services, businesses and community leaders. Rather than duplicating efforts among various agencies, a coordinated effort will bring better results and safer communities.

• Restore justice to the community by re-enforcing victims' rights and recognizing that they are the focal point of what prosecution is all about.

• Reorganization of staff resources to make the most effective and efficient use of individual prosecutor's skills. Prosecution entails many facets. The D. A.'s Office is a business which uses the taxpayers' money to operate. That business should operate smoothly and well for the benefit of the taxpayers and victims of crime.

• Encourage the Marin Courts to establish a Domestic Violence Court to address the immediate problems of the families of batterers. This court would, in appropriate cases, work toward the preservation of the family while watching out for the safety of the community. It would include an extensive treatment program in the jail facility that would retrain the behavior of batterers while in a secure facility.

• Create a Community-Wide Domestic Violence Task Force to address the issue of family violence • Encourage the Marin Courts to establish a Drug Court for non-violent, drug offenders who are not involved in sales or violence. This would be for both juveniles and adults.

• Marin County has no detox facility for alcoholics and as a result, the police must book people who are drunk in public into the Marin County Jail. This is a waste of law enforcement resources and a non-effective measure for the alcoholic. I intend to continue to work toward establishing a detox facility. Also there is no Dual Diagnosis Facility in Marin which would address people with both alcohol/drug addiction and mental health issues. I intend to continue to work toward establishing a detox facility.

• Establish a Mulidisciplinary Interview Center for victims of Child Sexual Assault so that a child victim will only be interviewed once, expertly, which will avoid that child be re-victimized by the "system."

•Establish a Teen Court for youthful offenders to use peer pressure to improve behavior of non-violent, low risk offenders.

•Create a 24-hour crisis response program, by training and using community volunteers.

•Work with local banks to be on the alert for financial abuse of seniors.

•Work with the community to create a 24-hour service for deaf citizens.

• Work to expand translation services available in law enforcement agencies.

These are but a few of my ideas on how the District Attorney's Office can be an effective means to improve the quality of our lives and the safety of the community by pairing prosecution with prevention.