Deirdre Daly, Connecticut's Proactive U.S. Attorney

Deirdre Daly, Connecticut’s first female United States Attorney, gave Y’s Men a broad view her organization’s responsibilities and a sense of its priorities.

Ms. Daly opened, saying “I think being a woman opened doors in my career.” She was a pioneer at Dartmouth College and Georgetown Law School, then one of the few female criminal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, a “premiere district” heavily engaged in prosecuting financial crime.

Connecticut’s US Attorney has three offices - in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, with 65 attorneys assigned to three units - National Security and Major Crimes, Violent Crimes and Narcotics and Financial Fraud and Public Corruption. Most do criminal prosecutions, though the office does prosecute civil cases.

Like every federal agency, Daly’s office has been hampered by the sequester, and so lacks the full staffing it needs. As a consequence, she focuses primarily on national security threats, violent crime, financial fraud and protecting members of vulnerable groups - children, human traffickers, senior citizens and the infirm.

Since 9/11 the office’s priority is “clearly” national security.  The FBI in the state spends at least 50 percent of its “time, energy and resources on national security.” She said she does not have too many such cases, but they do follow a great number of “guardian” leads. 

The office prosecutes violent narcotics and immigration cases. The former is being rethought so greater resources can be applied to imprisoning the most violent dealers and groups, at the expense of limiting involvement with low level and non-violent individuals. In the latter, prosecutions target those who were incarcerated for violent crimes, deported, then later re-entered without documents. Much of the work in both areas is done in conjunction with the FBI, DEA, ATF and local police departments.

Attorney General Eric Holder has made civil rights a priority. “If the feds don’t prosecute, these cases don’t get done.” She was asked whether “prosecutions in cases involving unarmed African-American men being shot and killed by police are a priority for the DoJ?” 

“Absolutely!”

She said the Ferguson, MO, case was so acerbated by such a lack of trust between law enforcement and the community that it became necessary for Department of Justice civil rights lawyers to step in and begin a parallel and independent federal criminal civil rights investigation using 40 FBI agents to conduct interviews. She added that there is also a federal civil investigation around a “pattern and practice of illegal activities within the Ferguson Police Department.”

Connecticut law enforcement agencies, including the Daly’s office, are acting to improve “transparency and trust,” and so mitigate such problems. Following the Y’s Men meeting she headed to a conference in New Britain with police chiefs from every Connecticut community. Among the changes to be pursued here is the adoption of body cameras  - which Westport is already doing - to provide a complete public record of police actions. 

One initiative currently being implemented in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford is Project Longevity. This program seeks to reduce violence in these cities by establishing a partnership between law enforcement, community and academia. The three groups reinforce each other, share intelligence and build trust. They seek out violent groups, and provide the opportunities and role models to move members into more productive roles in their neighborhoods.

Daly summed up by placing a broad perspective on crime, and calling current US incarceration rates “unsustainable.” We have five percent of world’s population and 25 percent of its incarcerated; one in five African American males spends some significant time in prison; 10 million people cycle through US jails annually; and 40 percent of federal prisoners and 60 percent of state inmates return within three years.

“Cost, culture or recidivism, the system is not working.” Daly’s office is taking the challenge of becoming more proactive, identifying the types of crime it can reduce, the offenders it can reach and the role it can play in making Connecticut’s cities less violent.

W
Submitted by Westport, CT

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