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APRI Highlights - Summer 2001
National Center for Community Prosecution
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Director, National Center for Community Prosecution
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Community-oriented prosecution marks a significant departure from traditional views of prosecution. No longer confined to offices and courtrooms, community prosecutors are deployed in neighborhoods where they work closely with citizens, other governmental agencies, businesses and a variety of nonprofit and faith-based organizations. This shift in focus allows prosecutors to address neighborhood livability issues, thereby taking a pre-emptive strike against more serious crimes.
Since 1993, APRI has been at the forefront of this movement. We have conducted forums for leaders in the field; published numerous books and articles; trained over 1000 prosecutors, law enforcement and community representatives; and visited 29 jurisdictions across the country to discuss community prosecution strategies.
In sum, APRI's National Center for Community Prosecution serves as a national clearinghouse for information, a center for innovation and a resource for measuring performance.
Last fall, APRI hosted the first National Community Prosecution Conference, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), which attracted almost 200 attendees. APRI is also collaborating with district attorneys' offices and their Regional Community Policing Institutes (RCPI) to co-host workshops on community prosecution and community policing.
APRI continues to take the lead in exploring new applications for community prosecution. In August, we will offer an advanced course for deputy district attorneys and line supervisors working in the community. This course will examine challenges that community prosecutors face and will allow participants to strategize on more effective ways to resolve them. In November, APRI will offer a course entitled "The Emerging Role of the Community Prosecutor." This course, for elected prosecutors and unit chiefs, will examine how community prosecution might effectively address some of the nation's most intractable problems, including gun violence, child abuse, hate crimes, crimes against the elderly, impaired driving offenses, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and other crimes.
In a related development, APRI intends to expand its community prosecution techniques to combat gun-related violent crimes. On May 14, President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft announced "Project Safe Neighborhoods," a program allocating $75 million to hire up to 600 local prosecutors to concentrate on gun-related crimes. To support this program, APRI plans to analyze gun prosecution strategies and document promising practices drawing on best practices from successful programs such as "Project Exile" in Richmond, Virginia, and "Automatic FIVE" in Baltimore, Maryland.
To learn more about community prosecution, please contact communityprosecution@ndaa-apri.org.
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