Partnership Building with the Prosecutor’s Office when Dealing with Hate Crimes July 2014 Voiceover: Beat Intro 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Gerald Moore 00:08 Hello and welcome. My name is Gerald Moore, and on behalf of the COPS Office I would like to introduce you to George Gascon, the district attorney for the city and county of San Francisco, California. Today, D.A. Gascon is here to discuss the partnership building with the prosecutor’s office when dealing with hate crimes and addressing the needs of hate crime victims. D.A. Gascon, why is it so important for law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office to partner on hate crime cases? George Gascon 00:40 It is very important. The reason why it’s very important for both agencies to work together is because hate crimes are difficult crimes to prove. They are specific intent crimes, so one of the things that we have to show is that the individual that committed this offense intended to do so and that the motivation for doing so was related to hate. That requires a very clearly focused investigation on the part of police and then the police and prosecutor working together to make sure we are able to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt in front of a jury. Gerald 01:18 What are some challenges to prosecutor law enforcement partnerships, and how has the San Francisco district attorney’s office overcome those challenges? George 01:28 Some of those challenges have to do with workload. Police departments in most jurisdictions are understaffed, and district attorneys are as well. This is the type of crime that in order to be able to do well in a prosecution, we have to make sure the investigation is very thorough. Again, as I mentioned earlier, we have to be able to show there was specific intent on the part of the offender. To do so requires an investigation that is very nuanced, is very specific. Having departments that are generally understaffed and, perhaps in some cases also, you may have people that are not well trained in this area; having the ability to work together and be able to overcome the resource problems that often occur; and being able to do the kind of investigation that is necessary is sometimes challenging. I think that everybody wants to do well. The problem sometimes is whether we have the capacity to do well. Gerald 02:26 Why is it important to build a relationship with the community, especially for preventing, responding, and prosecuting hate crimes? How is the D.A.’s office addressing the needs of hate crime victims? George 02:38 It is critical for us to have a strong relationship with the communities. And not only are the communities that likely to be victimized, but the community as a whole. The first and most important part of public safety is preventing crimes. In order to be able prevent crimes in this type of area like any others, we require the community to be aware of what is going on and that people are working together with one another. So it is critical for us, first of all, to raise the awareness level within a community as to what a hate crime looks like; the impact that hate crimes can have, not only on individuals but the community as a whole; and to be able to create mechanisms around so that people feel comfortable reporting a hate crime. Often, marginalized communities are not comfortable dealing with law enforcement. They don’t feel comfortable calling the police. They may not even feel comfortable dealing with the district attorney’s office or coming into our courtroom. Being able to bring that all together requires close relationships. It requires a high level of trust and a high-level understanding. Therefore, having the community on board in this area is very critical to our success, as a community as well as law enforcement professionals. Gerald 03:57 Why is it important to have a discussion on hate crimes and the gap in reporting? George 04:03 Hate crimes is one of those areas that is terribly underreported. A great deal of the underreporting occurs because of either fear or distrust of the authorities or, frankly, often, just not knowing what a hate crime looks like. People know they are being assaulted. They may be victimized because of their sexual orientation or their gender or their race. They may not understand that actually there’s an additional nexus to another criminal statute when that is the motivation for the assault or the behavior. So education is important. I think it’s very important also for people to understand that they can, in fact, come to law enforcement and that law enforcement is going to be respectful and is going to work with them. I think they need to understand how the process works in order to remove some of the fear that is normal for people that have not necessarily been involved in the criminal justice system. Gerald 05:00 Thank you District Attorney Gascon for providing us with your expertize and time today. This podcast is part of series of podcasts related to the COPS Office project with Not in Our Town. For more information and additional resources, including A Prosecutor’s Stand, a film featuring D.A. Gascon and the work being done in San Francisco on hate crimes, please visit NIOT’s and the COPS Office’s joint web page. Voiceover: Beat Exit 05:32 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice, COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Voiceover: Disclaimer 05:48 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.