What is the role of the local prosecutor in this new age of terrorism?

What is the role of the local prosecutor in this new age of terrorism?

Although the events of last September 11 and thereafter are unprecedented in this nation’s history for their magnitude and sheer shock value, the prosecutor’s role is unchanged and more important than ever.

As the chief law enforcement officers of their communities, prosecutors are responsible for the protection, safety and well-being of their fellow citizens. By the very nature of their responsibilities, they are leaders of the communities they have been entrusted to serve.

One of their responsibilities is dispelling fear and panic. As an example, when a wave of anthrax scares swept over Camden County, New Jersey, it was Lee Solomon, the local prosecutor and an NDAA director, who took the lead in urging calm and reasonable precautions, while promising vigorous prosecution of anyone making terrorist threats or staging an anthrax hoax.

In St. Louis County, Missouri, Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, also an NDAA director, was making similar statements. News reports indicated that prosecutors in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and other cities, large and small, across the country were also working with their local mayors, police, health departments and other agencies to meet the challenge and reassure their local citizens.

The point is that while domestic terrorism under war conditions is primarily a national problem, local prosecutors also have significant responsibilities. One of the late House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill’s favorite and oft-quoted aphorisms was “All politics is local.” In the present situation and context, domestic terrorism threats are local, too, in that they affect us all where we live and work.

Similarly:

• Potential terrorism targets such as public utilities and water and power supplies are local.
  
  
• Hospitals and health services are local.
  
  
• Airports, buses, trains, tunnels and bridges are local.
  
  
• Hate crimes are local.
  
  
• Fraud, such as fund-raising scams for terrorism victims, is local.
  
  
• Schools are local.
  
  
• Enforcing the emerging volume of state and county anti-terrorism legislation is obviously the responsibility of local prosecutors.
  
  
• Victim assistance is local.
  

The list goes on.

Because terrorism and terrorism threats know no jurisdictional boundaries, and because there are some gray areas in this unprecedented situation, local prosecutors face complex challenges and questions. For example, the joint multi-jurisdictional task force concept, so effective in fighting organized crime and drug gangs, might be an appropriate tool for fighting terrorism. In their own jurisdictions, local prosecutors certainly are establishing or strengthening anti-terrorism working groups with mayors’ offices, their governor’s office, the local airport authority, hospitals and agencies responsible for sensitive federal, state and local buildings.

With a potential huge list of court cases resulting from federal terrorism cases, local prosecutors may be asked to take over some of these cases that have a less tenuous federal link, under cross-designation arrangements. In addition, the impending reorganization of the Department of Justice, with more emphasis on anti-terrorism programs and less emphasis on such domestic crimes as drug offenses, could add more cases to local prosecutors’ workloads.

In assessing what it can do to help prosecutors meet their expanded responsibilities, the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) has asked prosecutors for their ideas on their role in the war on terrorism and particularly for the types of information they think would be useful in enhancing their capacity to address terrorism. Most prosecutors responding to the survey indicated that they have three principal roles:

• Coordinating with local, state and federal authorities in investigations, including those that originate at the local level, such as possession of explosive devices, identity theft, fraud, theft of services and money laundering.
  
  
• Conducting outreach to the community to convey information about terrorism and terrorism threats, encouraging reporting of such information and addressing fears and concerns.
  
  
• Coordinating information at the local level from various law enforcement and other agencies.

In a summary of the survey, APRI reports “The primary challenge that local prosecutors face in these areas is a lack of information sharing from federal law enforcement and federal prosecutors.” (Note: Tom Ridge, director of the new Office of Homeland Security, and FBI Director Bob Mueller have promised to share more information with local law enforcement agencies and increase their role in the national anti-terrorism efforts). In addition, local prosecutors noted that they lacked the experience and training, as well as the resources, to be effective in preventing and detecting terrorism. Most felt that ‘how-to’ guides and information about model strategies (e.g., terrorism preparedness, appropriate responses and information sharing) would be of greatest use to them in building their capacity” to deal with the terrorism threat in their jurisdictions.

In carrying out their awesome additional responsibilities, on top of their already overburdened day-to-day workloads, America’s prosecutors will have the unstinting support and assistance of NDAA and its affiliates, APRI and the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA).