(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, Mayor Bowser joined with Channing Phillips, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (USAO) and Karl Racine, DC Attorney General (OAG) to announce a partnership that will increase the number of attorneys prosecuting crimes in the District of Columbia. The partnership calls for the Mayor’s Office to fund eight new attorney positions at the Office of the Attorney General. Those attorneys and others will be detailed from the OAG to the USAO where they will receive training and assist in the prosecution of criminal cases.
“The point of the partnership is simple: when our hardworking men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department arrest a violent offender, we must have the resources to prosecute those cases and to do so quickly,” said Mayor Bowser. “By working together, local and federal law enforcement officials have developed a partnership that will keep our community safer and stronger.”
“This agreement reflects the strong relationship that our office has with the Mayor’s Office, the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General and other local partners,” said U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips. “We look forward to continuing to share information, coordinate resources, and collaborate on solutions regarding crime in our city. We must use every tool possible to identify and bring to justice those responsible for crime in our community.”
“Our justice system works best when all stakeholders work together to improve it, and this partnership is an innovative expansion of the positive collaboration that already takes place between the District’s two prosecutorial agencies and the Mayor’s Office,” Attorney General Karl A. Racine said. “This agreement will strengthen our justice system by providing the Office of the Attorney General with more resources to prosecute crimes and bolster our progressive efforts to reduce recidivism while also enhancing the U.S. Attorney’s forward-thinking efforts at community prosecution.”
The attorney augmentation plan consists of two separate agreements - one between the Mayor and the OAG, and another between the OAG and the USAO. The goals of the partnership are to 1) further the District of Columbia's comprehensive public safety agenda, including the Mayor’s Safer, Stronger DC plan, a multi-agency approach to prevent violent crime; 2) to build the capacity of attorneys and other staff of OAG and USAODC to support the vigorous and effective prosecution of repeat violent offenders and the protection of District of Columbia residents and neighborhoods; 3) to assist OAG and other criminal justice stakeholders with addressing violent crime; and 4) to further enhance the cooperation and collaboration between the OAG and USAODC in their efforts to enforce the criminal laws of the District of Columbia and respond to the public safety needs of the community.