L.A. Prosecutors Focus Attention on ‘Little Crimes’

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has sent out a team of prosecutors across Los Angeles to battle small problems before they become larger.

Delgadillo said the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program is designed to partner the prosecutors who litigate quality of life issues, such as graffiti and dog barking, with the citizens who are troubled by those issues. The 18 attorneys are working out of new offices in police stations.

On March 1, a prosecutor was assigned to each Los Angeles Police Department division and now are hearing about “everything from gang activity to problems with the noise of leaf blowers,” said Mary McGuire, a spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office.

They are “the little crimes that erode our neighborhoods and pave the way for more serious crimes,” she said.

In the City Council motion to approve the program in January, sponsors complained that “the traditional prosecutorial system is, by design, both insulated from the community and largely reactive.”

Deputy City Atty. Anthony Paul Diaz is the neighborhood prosecutor working out of the LAPD’s Devonshire station. He said many quality of life issues can be resolved quickly when the appropriate authorities are involved.

They are “not solved just in the courtroom, but really in the community,” Diaz said.