Report Subtitled “Seeking Justice Through
Community Partnerships & Innovation”
Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler, on Monday, April 3, 2017, announced the release of the District Attorney’s Office 2016 Annual Report. In addition, the Office released a nine-page Executive Summary of the full Report.
The Report outlines the structure of the District Attorney’s Office and the operations of the various units in the Office; provides statistics on the number of cases that the units in the Office handled in 2016; and describes the facts of a number of individual cases that the Office prosecuted last year. In addition, the Report describes a number of new initiatives that the Office undertook in 2016, including:
The Uncommon Athlete, a program of Rachel’s Challenge that the District Attorney sponsored at several area high schools in 2016. The program is designed to bring to student athletes some strategies for being better athletes and better people, and for being the leaders of tomorrow.
The District Attorney’s Video Camera Law Enforcement Portal, which allows citizens to inform law enforcement about the existence of video cameras on their premises, cameras that authorities might later turn to for important information about crimes committed in the County.
The District Attorney’s Immigrant Affairs Initiative, designed to assist immigrant crime victims to negotiate the criminal justice system.
The Report reflects significant improvements in criminal prosecution in Orange County in the three years since District Attorney Hoovler took office, as compared to the three years immediately before. Comparing some of the statistics in the 2016 Report with statistics for 2011-15, for example, reflects:
A more than 119% increase in prosecutions for illegal drug sales.
A more than 107% increase in drug sale indictments.
A more than 1,200% increase in welfare fraud prosecutions.
A more than 277% increase in welfare costs avoided.
The Report also notes the significant recovery that the District Attorney’s Office had under the New York State Crime Against Revenue Program (CARP). In the first half of 2016, the Orange County CARP initiative recovered $1.4 million in government funds, second only to Manhattan in recoveries among New York’s CARP counties. That recovery reflects a more than thirteen-fold return on the amount of money that the State provides to the District Attorney’s Office to support CARP activities.
“Our efforts to combat crime and to establish relationships with our communities continued to grow in 2016,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “We saw unprecedented increases in the quantity and quality of our narcotics and revenue prosecutions. We established and continued quality programs designed to assist our citizens in preventing crimes, and to provide them with the tools to help law enforcement fight crime. The 2016 Annual Report details our achievements in those respects, and more. Since before I became District Attorney, I pledged to bring initiatives like those to Orange County, and with the commitment from the dedicated men and women on my staff, we are succeeding. As we move forward, we will continue to make strides in ‘Seeking Justice Through Community Partnerships and Innovation.’ ”
Copies of the Annual Report and Executive Summary are available by contacting District Attorney Hoovler’s Special Projects and Community Affairs Bureau at (845) 615-3640 or by email to DACommunityAffairs@orangecountygov.com.