DA eyeing crime strategy unit
Data-driven unit studies connections between criminals
It’s helped nab a ring of young women who robbed high-end clothing stores and build a human trafficking case that led to a 100-year prison sentence.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said a data-driven crime strategy unit in his office has reshaped how the California city prosecutes criminal cases.
He is in town today to brief business leaders and policy makers on the unit thanks to the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Tickets are still available for a luncheon he will speak at.
Second Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez visited crime strategy units in San Francisco and New York, and wants to create a similar program here. He said he hopes Gascón can help influence business leaders and local policy makers about the importance of investing in such a team.
“They started to look in real time at the connections between individuals,” Torrez said of the unit in San Francisco. “Whether it’s the common use of a gun, cars, addresses, known associates and the like. You start to build a comprehen-
sive picture of real crime drivers in the community.”
A good prosecutor, investigator and data analyst is all a community needs to start such a unit, Gascón said in an interview. The unit then takes a criminal case sent to it by police, and analyzes it using law enforcement databases and other records to see if the defendant is acting alone or if they are part of a larger network that is working together.
That helps prosecutors decide whether to prioritize a case or not.
He said that career prosecutors were originally skeptical of using data to decide what cases to prosecute.
But they got on board after the unit turned small cases that police hand over into larger ones.
It’s also been used to intervene in young people’s lives and get them resources from nonprofits and social workers instead of sending them into the criminal justice system.
“It’s not only used to simply strengthen the prosecution,” he said. “It’s often used to help intervene.”
He credited the unit with taking a single human trafficking case with a reluctant teen witness into a strong case with 20 victims that led to a 100-year sentence. It also helped lead to a large number of grand jury indictments in a case of a group of young women who were knocking off fancy clothing stores.
“Frankly, we now live and die by this stuff,” Gascón said. “These things prove their worth very quickly.”