While looking over the latest membership reports, especially the growing number of 100 percent membership states, I could not help wondering what Frank Coakley would have thought.

Frank Coakley was the first president of NDAA. As I mentioned in an earlier message on our 50th anniversary year, membership during Coakley’s presidency and for some years afterward was so small and the treasury so meager that NDAA headquarters was located in the office of the prosecutor who was serving as NDAA president at the time. Funding for prosecutors’ programs ranged from modest to non-existent and the voices of prosecutors were not heard with much effect in Washington, or for that matter, in many state legislatures. In short, our membership was too small for us to have any influence on government.

The influence of prosecutors with Washington at that time was typified by an encounter in 1950 between Coakley and then Attorney General J. Howard McGrath at the annual conference of the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers in Kansas City. McGrath, who was the luncheon speaker, announced during his address that he was planning a national conference on crime in Washington, DC, and mentioned the names of the state, county and local organizations that would be invited to send representatives. No local prosecutors were on the list. After the luncheon, Coakley asked McGrath why no local prosecutors had been invited. McGrath’s reply: “Because you have no organization.” In other words, no standing. Coakley quickly changed that. Within months, the organization that eventually became NDAA was born.

What a difference 52 years have made.

NDAA today has solid standing not only in Congress, but in the White House, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other executive departments and agencies. Our views on criminal justice policy are not only heard but sought in Washington. We are constantly invited to send representatives to testify before Congress or to attend national conferences to present the prosecutors’ perspective. Recently President Meenan met with Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security, who asked for input from NDAA on the role that local prosecutors can play in anti-terrorism efforts.

With our media relations effort, we are not only projecting—and protecting—the image of prosecutors as “the good guys,” but are responding quickly and effectively to any attempts to distort or besmirch that image.

In these efforts our weapon is the truth. Our strength is in our growing numbers.

As of this writing, 17 states have 100 percent NDAA membership. The latest to reach 100 percent are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina and Maryland. Those with memberships of 90 percent or higher are Florida, Michigan and Tennessee. Those with between 80 and 90 percent membership include Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio and Washington. Those with longer-term 100 percent membership include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Carolina, Delaware and Rhode Island.

Back in the days of NDAA’s infancy, the image of local prosecutors as the good guys was secure, bolstered by favorable articles in the press and by such Golden Oldie radio shows as Mr. District Attorney. We figuratively sat back, content and confident that all law-abiding Americans regarded us as their attorneys.

Today that image is under siege by the media, defense bar and the public. And we’re countering those attacks on every front. Our president and other experienced prosecutors around the nation are presenting our views and refuting false and slanted media reports.

Recent examples:

President Meenan has been a prolific writer of letters to the editor and op-ed articles, declaring in an op-ed article in USA TODAY that inadequate funding of laboratories and technicians has caused “a shameful backlog of DNA testing,” and pointing out, in an interview for an article in The National Law Journal, that the terrorist attacks have resulted in increased public reliance on and respect for law enforcement, including prosecutors.

Other NDAA officers also have had letters to the editor and op-ed pieces published on issues affecting prosecutors. Former president Bob Johnson responded vigorously, in a letter to The Washington Times to a Times columnist’s charge that “wrongful conviction has become routine,” noting, among other things, that the columnist had used a few cases, “presented selectively” to make his point. Former NDAA president Stu VanMeveren has pushed the case, in print, for student loan forgiveness for new prosecutors. And former NDAA presidents Bill Murphy and John Kaye used letters to the editor in national newspapers to press the argument for a slowing down of federalization of local crimes.

On the image front, one of our more exciting and promising developments has been the production of three TV public service announcements (PSAs) and two radio PSAs portraying prosecutors as everyone’s friends and community leaders “doing the right thing.” Featured in the PSAs are stars of two top-rated TV crime shows: George Eads of CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, (Eads, incidentally is the son of former NDAA president Arthur C. “Cappy” Eads), and S. Epatha Merkerson of NBC’s Law and Order. These are network quality PSAs and are available in both TV and radio format to all prosecutors who would like to have them aired or broadcast by their local stations, or for their own use. These PSAs can be purchased by calling either Cathy Yates (703-519-1654) or Velva Walter (703-519-1689) at the NDAA offices or by filling out the on-line order form.

Another challenge: The rapid advances in technology, plus the increasingly aggressive, well-organized and sophisticated tactics of the defense bar (which conducts seminars on how to out-maneuver prosecutors in court) present formidable challenges to prosecutors, especially to newer prosecutors and those in smaller jurisdictions.

The answer is training and technical assistance. NDAA provides the best.

NDAA’s National Advocacy Center at Columbia, SC, provides the finest training available anywhere in every aspect of prosecution, from the JumpStart program for newly assigned prosecutors to programs on the most complex types of prosecutorial challenges, including cybercrime and presentation of DNA evidence. Faculty is top of the line and the facilities are state-of-the art. The more prosecutors who attend the advocacy center’s programs, the more it can expand those programs. It is critically important that prosecutors continue to attend these NAC programs, for the benefits accrue not only to the prosecutors, but to the public they serve.

Two NDAA affiliates provide unequaled training and resources for prosecutors. The American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) offers unparalleled expertise, technical assistance, research and training in a wide variety of prosecution fields, and the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA) provides superb trial advocacy training.

In these unusual times, with so many interests competing for pieces of a smaller funding pie, and with adequate funding resources essential for prosecutors to do their jobs effectively, it’s a daunting task for any single prosecutor to make a compelling case before Congress for a program or a policy issue. But NDAA can and does perform this function successfully, representing the interests of prosecutors of jurisdictions of every size, at the highest levels of government in Washington, DC, primarily because of our membership numbers, which translate into standing.

To restate the obvious, the higher our membership numbers, the more impact we have and the more effectively we can represent prosecutors where it counts.

That’s why it’s in the interest of every local prosecutor in the United States to be a member of NDAA and in the interest of every NDAA member to persuade non-members to join.