District Attorney Brooke Jenkins challenged Mayor Daniel Lurie's request for 15 percent budget cuts amid an $818 million shortfall, seeking a $2.9 million increase instead. She argued that cuts would severely impact her department’s ability to prosecute cases, specifically jeopardizing personnel and essential units. Currently, misdemeanor prosecutors handle an average of 186 cases, highlighting an already stretched department. Jenkins emphasized that a reduction in funding would hinder accountability in crime prosecution, exacerbating issues within the community.
If she imposed the mayor's cuts, she added, that would require her to lay off 25 prosecutors, a move that, Jenkins said, "would essentially gut our misdemeanor unit and our preliminary hearing unit, as well as three narcotics lawyers."
We are a city bogged down in low-level crime," Jenkins said. If her department is unable to continue with its current pace of prosecutions, "We will see a lack of accountability that moves us backwards in many of the issues we're working hard to resolve on our streets.
Today, a state prosecutor handling misdemeanors in the district attorney's office has, on average, 186 open cases, Jenkins said. Those handling general felonies have an average of 69.
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