Harris moves to beef up petty crime prosecutions

Citing a spike in misdemeanor case dismissals, District Attorney Kamala Harris
is calling on the city to hire up to five new prosecutors to handle petty crime cases.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Brent Begin

May 2, 2007

Citing a spike in misdemeanor case dismissals, the San Francisco district attorney's office is calling on the city to pay for more prosecutors to handle petty crimes.

According to the office, prosecutors are currently assigned 300 misdemeanor cases at any given time in San Francisco Superior Court, which means prosecutors have a hard time keeping up with their caseloads.

There are currently up to nine prosecutors working on misdemeanor cases. District Attorney Kamala Harris is looking to hire five more.

Currently, three felony prosecutors have been reassigned to assist with petty crime.

Misdemeanor cases include quality of life violations such as graffiti, petty theft, encampments, aggressive panhandling and prostitution.

Other misdemeanor cases include gun crimes, domestic violence, assaults on children and adults and driving under the influence.

"Our misdemeanor team is the city's front line on quality of life offenses and many other serious matters charged as misdemeanors," Harris said in a statement. "We're taking these cases all the way to trial to get the right results, but we need a lot more trial attorneys if we're going to hold the line."

According to the district attorney's office, San Francisco deals with more than nine times the statewide average in misdemeanor trials.

"This staffing shortage is a public safety issue and cannot continue," Harris added.

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