The Edmond Sun

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August 10, 2007

DA gets tough on gang-related crimes

Courtney Bryce

EDMOND — In 2003 there were 123 drive-by shootings in Oklahoma City alone. That number rose to 245 by 2006. About 148 of those incidents took place by the end of July.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the Edmond Democrats at a monthly meeting Thursday that he has personally worked with gang members to decrease gang-related crimes. The number of drive-by shootings in Oklahoma City has decreased by 62 compared to this same time last July.

“We’re being smart on crime,” Prater said.

He said while people who commit violent crimes still are being sent to prison, he is finding other ways to help people who commit lesser crimes.

“Making the community safer does not always mean throwing a person in jail,” Prater said.

About 80 percent to 85 percent of crimes are drug- or alcohol-related.

“We’ve re-emphasized the drug court program,” he said.

Since he became district attorney the participants in drug court have increased from about 250 to about 460. He said it costs $5,000 to send one person through drug court but $18,000 to $23,000 to incarcerate them for a year.

Prater said people who go through drug court and undergo substance abuse treatment are five times less likely to continue their habits than if they were incarcerated.

In order to have more funding to decrease the amount of crime in the community, Prater eliminated the public relations position in his office and hired a grant writer.

“If people trusted me enough to elect me, I owe it to them to stand in front of them and answer tough questions,” he said.

The federal government already has awarded Prater’s office with more than $600,000 in grants to address violent crime. Prater said these are grants Oklahoma County has not historically received.

He said as a result of the grants, they now have four lawyers who work solely on gang prosecution. Prater said, however, there still is a lot of violent crime that is not gang-related.

Walter Jenny, chairman of the Edmond Democrats, said while the public does have a general awareness of gang-related crime they don’t deal with it on a daily basis. He said it was helpful to hear about the issue from a person who does deal with it everyday.

“I think there were healthy questions about it because it affects everyone,” Jenny said. “We continue to bring leading Democrats to our meetings so they can interact.”

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