Alameda County's next district attorney is gearing up to take charge and strengthen the office with a renewed focus on serving victims.
Superior Court Judge Ursula Jones Dickson has been on the bench for 11 years and said she is looking to hit the ground running as DA.
"The DA's job is to be the top law enforcement officer in the county, which means that we have to look at public safety and victims first. Everything else flows from that," she said.
Jones-Dickson said she has three priorities when she takes charge: building up victim witness programs, boosting office morale, and training and recruiting because many prosecutors left during the last administration.
She said many of those former prosecutors are ready to come back.
"We lost a lot of institutional knowledge to other offices under the last administration," Jones-Dickson said. "And I'm sure [Pamela Price hired] great people. I don't know them as of yet, but I know the experience is not the same."
Jones-Disckson spent 15 years as a prosecutor before being appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court in 2013.
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She said she aims to restore public trust in the office through transparency after voters took the polls last November and ousted former DA Pamela Price.
"I'm going to do the best that I possibly can to provide them with the services from the DA's office that they require," Jones-Dickson said. "The DA's not the police either, so we don't go out and arrest people, or we can't tamp down crime in that way. But what we can do is make sure that the cases that come to us are handled correctly."
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Criminal Defense Attorney Michael Rains, who has defended police officers charged by the office, hopes the new DA will stay focused on the law rather than political pressure.
"Those qualities may result in her charging clients I represent criminally," he said. "I've never said that officers don't make mistakes or that, at times, they don't cross the line between law enforcement enforcers and law enforcement breakers. I've never said that. I want a DA; however, that's going to make the call fairly, objectively."
The newly appointed DA said she believed restorative justice has a place but also added she would not shy away from taking suspects to trial.
"I want to get back to that idea that the victim's at the center of this, and the victim is going to be the one to call the shots. [How does] that restorative justice move forward?" Jones-Dickson said.
She will hold office until 2026 and is set to be sworn in on Tuesday.
" I hope people feel a little safer, that people know they don't want to come to Oakland or to Fremont or to Hayward to commit a crime," Jones-Dickson said. "You may have people in your town, but when people come in here to do it, that's a problem. I don't want us to be the target of that anymore."