Bates outlines strategic plan for Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office as staffing levels increase – beragampengetahuan – Beragampengetahuan

The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office is on track to be fully staffed with line prosecutors by September, State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said at a news conference announcing a new strategic plan for the office.

The city prosecutors office has been plagued by staffing shortages for years.

The strategic plan, which Bates said is the first in the history of the State’s Attorney’s Office, focuses on improving services for victims and witnesses of crime, whose cooperation is vital to successfully prosecuting cases, and strengthening training for prosecutors.

The office will begin surveying crime victims and witnesses to assess whether their needs are being met and will redesign its waiting area to ensure they have a private space away from the other parties who come to court for criminal proceedings.

Bates said the plan is part of his ongoing effort to improve the office’s transparency and accountability to the community.

“People ask me, do you want to be tough on crime or do you want to look the other way?” Bates said. “We’re not tough on crime. We’re not looking the other way. We’re saying we’re smart on crime.”

The strategic plan calls for professionalizing the office by training prosecutors in a standard set of skills, expanding the use of technology and tracking employees’ performance.

Bates inherited an office beset by staffing problems when he was sworn in last year. Under Bates’ predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, the office lost more than 80 prosecutors in the years leading up to 2022 and faced growing problems with staff morale.

On Tuesday, Bates said the office is on track to have all of its attorney positions, 188 in total, filled by September. A number of new lawyers have committed to taking roles in the State’s Attorney’s Office but will not start until later in the year, he said.

All employees also will receive standardized training in the software and technology used in the office, according to the 23-page strategic plan. Revamping the office’s technology will help prevent discovery violations in criminal cases, which sometimes occur when prosecutors can’t access everything in a police officer’s file, Bates said.

“If people don’t believe in the system, then there’s a problem,” Bates said. “And the system isn’t fair if people don’t have all the evidence against them as soon as possible.”

The strategic plan also calls for the office to work with law enforcement to develop additional prosecution diversion programs.

Bates reintroduced the prosecution of low-level “quality-of-life” offenses last year, a campaign pledge he made after Mosby stopped charging those cases during the coronavirus pandemic. Bates created a citation court docket aimed at diverting people who commit those offenses into community service and supportive programming.

The effort has been hampered by Baltimore police writing few citations that pass legal muster, a problem that contributed to a short-lived public spat between Bates and Mayor Brandon Scott this month.

Bates said Tuesday that he is evaluating whether other types of cases could be diverted, such as prostitution. The citation docket does not address prostitution cases.