Project Prosecutes Crime a Neighborhood at a Time

As a bewildered Colleen Smith watched from behind her screen door Thursday, a phalanx of two dozen local, state and federal officials--led by the county’s top cop and America’s No. 2 law enforcer--swept into her Whittier apartment, armed with clipboards and looking for signs of trouble.

They found a few.

The building she lives in was tidy for the most part, save for a minor code problem or two. But then there was the dim street lighting and the overgrown bushes in the back alley that seem to invite gang members and other troublemakers. The men with clipboards made notes, and urgently relayed them to a woman in a royal blue suit who seemed to be running things.

The woman, as well as the cops, building code enforcers, Whittier city officials and, of course, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., were at Smith’s complex to kick off a national crime-fighting effort based on the concept of so-called community prosecutors.

The U.S. Justice Department, Holder announced outside Smith’s apartment door, believes that the best way to fight crime on a local level is to have local prosecutors set up shop in a blighted community and get to know all of its problems first-hand, just like the police on the beat. That includes the gangs, truant students and decaying apartment buildings that are plaguing Smith’s neighborhood, just as they are thousands of other small communities from coast to coast.

But unlike in most neighborhoods, Whittier has had the good fortune to have Deputy Dist. Atty. Shelly Baron Torrealba, the woman in the blue suit.

Torrealba has spent the last 18 months being one of these community prosecutors. She has coordinated the efforts of police, building inspectors, school officials and even merchants to make sure their problems get the right amount of attention from the district attorney’s office and local judges. She has set up special gang tracking efforts, an anti-truancy program using mentors for at-risk students and an abatement program to encourage apartment complex managers to clean up their buildings.

On Thursday, Holder hailed Torrealba, and Garcetti’s office, for her innovative efforts. He said he would be giving Los Angeles County $200,000 to pay for her programs and to launch others like it.

In all, the Justice Department will spend $5 million this year in communities large and small, from New York to South Tucson, to install community-based prosecutors. Holder said a major reason for his trip was to publicly lobby for $200 million more next year to implement such programs nationwide, even though a Senate committee has voted down that request.

“We need to be good partners, and to make sure these efforts take hold and blossom,” Holder said, adding that he hopes to put 5,000 such prosecutors on the streets within the next five years. “If we learn from what you have done here, we can dramatically revitalize this nation, and continue to see a drop in crime.”

Smith, who is studying for an accountant’s license, had no idea who Torrealba was, or who Garcetti or Holder were either.

But she gamely opened her door when the two powerful law enforcement executives knocked, and let the entourage into her sparse living room. They asked a few questions, and politely left before poring over every other nook and cranny of the two-floor apartment building on a quiet street.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Smith, when she was told that the federal money would help improve apartment buildings like hers. “Gil Garcetti can invade my house any time he wants to.”

Susan Perez pressed Torrealba about the gang members that she says have threatened her 13-year-old son, Ruben. “We like the town of Whittier,” she said. “But these damn kids, they run in packs, literally. It’s not right.”

“We’re working on that,” Torrealba responded, taking notes.

Holder was not the only one praising Torrealba’s efforts Thursday. Although no one has been able to measure the program’s effectiveness in a comprehensive way, one person after another who attended a town meeting on the subject spoke about how much things have improved in Whittier since Torrealba began her efforts.

Chris Moreno, 10, said he hated school until Torrealba’s mentorship program linked him up with an older student named Shelly. Now, he said, looking at his mother, “I get excited. I get dressed before she does.”