District attorney's office needs more resources

Frontiersman editorial board

Sunday's main story in Frontiersman took a look at the difficulties faced by an overburdened district attorney's office here in the Valley. The Mat-Su district attorney's office faces a caseload much larger than it can reasonably accommodate, and that creates problems that reverberate throughout the Valley.

One of the most significant problems caused by the overworked prosecutor's office is that many of the lesser crimes go unpunished. The district attorney, knowing his office will never be able to prosecute every case, must choose to focus primarily on serious crimes, and also must have great confidence his office will be able to win the majority of its cases -- meaning only the strongest cases ever make it to court.

A second difficulty is that, because there are still plenty of serious crimes to be prosecuted, many cases take a year or more to ever even come to trial. During that time the choices are few. Either the suspects remain free, possibly committing more crimes or leaving the jurisdiction, or they are detained for an unreasonable amount of time, awaiting trial. Either way, justice is delayed.

A third issue arises from the frustration the lack of prosecution must cause in law enforcement agencies. When DUI, burglary and other arrests go unpunished, some police must ask, "What's the point?" Drunk drivers and petty criminals are continually pleading down to lesser infractions and being allowed to return to their detrimental behaviors without any significant ramifications.

From a philosophical standpoint, the public should demand a higher level of prosecution of all crimes, and the accused should be afforded their right to a speedy trial. The justice system is not functioning well if justice is only served upon serious crimes, and even then, at too slow a rate.

From a pragmatic point of view, a lack of prosecution carries a high cost to everyone in the community. When petty criminals are essentially unpunished, the crime rate for things like burglary, robbery and other lesser crimes remains high, and that costs everyone in personal losses and higher insurance rates.

It's time to put muscle in our prosecutor's office. Our district attorney needs more resources, and we shouldn't accept anything less. Our community continues to grow, and that means crime will increase as well. This is one that doesn't even warrant a debate. The only people who benefit when crime goes unpunished are criminals, and right now we're living in a community where some crimes do pay.