D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has proposed a bill that would create an elected prosecutor for the city of Washington embodied in a district attorney.
Most crimes – minus those committed by youth and drunk driving – are currently prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Norton’s bill would transfer those powers to an elected District Attorney, seemingly similar to the head prosecutor in New York and other cities.
“There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. residents, or on which they have less say, than the prosecution of local crimes,” Norton said in a statement. “A U.S. attorney has no business prosecuting the local criminal laws of a jurisdiction.”
This is another way of demanding the city’s independence. It’s enormously unlikely this will go anywhere. But if it did, where in the city’s cash-strapped budget would the dollars come to fund this new office? The federal government currently picks up the city’s prosecution tab.
