Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler told The Epoch Times that self-sufficient technology would be a top priority for his office over the next few years.
“I want to make the district attorney’s office completely self-reliant when it comes to technology so that we can do anything ourselves and we don’t need to contract out,” he said.
The county’s newly created information technology department and new head, Glenn Marchi, would be a great help in this endeavor, he said, noting an estimated multiyear investment of $3 million.
A self-reliant infrastructure will encompass all facets of office technology, with the flexibility to expand capacity as needed and evolve with new trends, according to Mr. Hoovler.
He cited the discovery reform, part of a 2019 state law that significantly changed crime evidence procedures by prosecutors, as a recent trend that his office is still grappling with.
Last year, about 30,000 hours of video was sent to his office as evidence by local police.
“Somebody in this office had to look at every hour, every minute, and every second of that,” he said. “I’ve got to have technology to store it and to play it at different locations—you can look at it in your office, you can look at it at home, and you can look at it on a crime scene.”
Having technology in place for remote work is directly linked to another priority of his office: recruiting and retaining quality millennial and Generation Z prosecutors.
“The Gen Z prosecutors have a different view of the workplace, and they want to have more flexibility and work from home,” he said. “It’s finding ways to meet the requirements of all the people working at the office and create the most productive atmosphere for everyone.”
In the next few years, he aims to increase the number of prosecutors and investigators at the office to about 70 and 20, respectively; the office currently has 53 prosecutors and 15 investigators.
Staff training also goes hand in hand with technological enhancement.
“We have plenty of good prosecutors in this office who have been here for 20 to 25 years, and we have to retrain them in the new and emerging technology,” he said. “Our investigators in the digital forensic unit are constantly being trained—almost one-sixth of their work time is in training.”
All the above plans in technology, recruiting, and training, along with a need for more office spaces, are being looked at with the goal of aiding traditional prosecutorial work, Mr. Hoovler said, noting that he’s developing a five-year master plan based on these key priorities.
Last year, the office processed about 6,400 arrests by local police departments in Orange County, with about one-third being felony charges, of which 465 were prosecuted as felony cases.
“Those were the most serious ones where we put in most efforts,” Mr. Hoovler said.
Driving while intoxicated and gun and drug cases top the felony prosecution chart, followed by burglaries, sex offenses, and theft.
Of 12 jury trials handled by the office in 2023, 10 led to guilty verdicts.
