APRI Highlights - Winter 2002

APRI Technical Assistance

George E. Ross, Director, Grant Management

In the inaugural issue of APRI Highlights, we encouraged local prosecutors to take advantage of APRI’s programs and request technical assistance, especially when confronted by challenging issues and little time. If you do, you should not feel that you are imposing on APRI or that you are one of only a few who request help.

In fact, over the past five months, APRI handled more than 2,500 technical assistance contacts, about 23 per day. Seventy-five percent were handled within 30 minutes, testimony to the efficiency and skills of the APRI staff. Frequently, they were able to respond with prepared information packets or by an e-mail message with pertinent attachments.

However, the other 25 percent of the requests required more effort and time. Over 300 contacts involved at least one hour, including 54 that necessitated more than three hours and 24 that demanded more than a full day of work by the APRI respondent. These latter requests typically involved legal research and contacts with known experts in the specific fields. APRI welcomes these requests: They keep us involved with new and emergent issues, and they prepare us to respond better to future callers.

There is one caveat: If your request falls outside the subject matter covered by the eight core program areas featured in APRI Highlights (for example, if you need help with capital litigation or remediation of illegal meth labs), we may not have the expertise or staff to respond to you directly. Instead, we will probably refer you to another prosecutor or a different source better positioned to help you with that topic.

There are several ways to request technical assistance:

Call (703) 549-4253 and ask to be transferred to the specific program area. Fax your request to (703) 836-3195. Send an e-mail to the APRI program. Log onto the APRI Web site and submit your request.

The bottom line: don’t go it alone! You won’t be the only prosecutor contacting us that day, and we will generally be able to help you very quickly.