By Michael Bushnell
Northeast News
August 1, 2012
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker braved extreme heat as well as a host of prostitutes and drunks to walk Independence Avenue July 25 with a team of prosecutors and two East Patrol police officers, promoting the re-introduction of Neighborhood Prosecution Teams to Avenue businesses and residents.
Neighborhood Prosecution Teams are not a foreign concept to area neighborhood leaders. The idea was introduced to Historic Northeast neighborhoods about a decade ago in an effort to more effectively team with police and neighborhoods in the targeting and prosecuting of career criminals. The concept faltered after a few years, however, leaving neighborhoods and residents the daunting task of navigating and tracking “red-file” cases through the court system.
Peters Baker re-introduced the concept roughly a year ago in an effort to re-open communication channels with the city prosecutor’s office, the office that prosecutes most street-level crime in the city, and also re-establish communication channels with law enforcement and neighborhoods.
Wednesday’s canvas focused on a four-block stretch of Independence Avenue between Benton Boulevard and Askew Avenue, one of the busiest areas in terms of street-level crime.