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Independence, MO —
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says she has several initiatives in mind for the next four years she’s in office, including added services in Eastern Jackson County.
“It’s a great job. It’s been fun. We’ve hit the ground literally running,” Peters Baker said in an interview with The Examiner. She was appointed to the position in May 2011 after Prosecutor James Kanatzar was appointed as a judge. She fills his term that runs to January 2013 and now will serve a full term running to January 2017 because she is running unopposed in this year’s primary and general elections.
One of the services she plans to expand into Eastern Jackson County falls under the heading of “neighborhood prosecutions,” a program begun in the 1990s – when Claire McCaskill was prosecutor and Peters Baker worked in that office – but that had faded over the years. There are 10 teams, all in the Kansas City at the moment, that focus on neighborhoods with high crime but also good community support. The idea is to bring charges swiftly, in a matter of days or a few weeks instead of the more typical three months.
“We still need to have a solid investigation. We still need to protect people’s constitutional rights,” Peters Baker stressed, adding that the aim is “identifying red targets, for lack of a better phrase.”
She did not have a time frame for getting that program to Eastern Jackson County, but more broadly an expansion of services is coming during the next couple of years as well. The county is renovating the Truman Courthouse on the Independence Square, and that will free up space for some offices – in turn opening up space for more judges and prosecutors in and near the Courthouse Annex on Kansas Avenue just off the Square. Peters Baker said the added space for her office will be at Lexington and Pleasant (in the building that housed The Examiner until 1980 and that the county still calls “The Examiner building”). As it stands now, assistant prosecutors don’t even have space to meet with the families of crime victims.
Last month, Peters Baker’s office launched a Veterans Court, an idea tried in various places around the country, as an effort to serve those who have served the country. The program is two-fold: It’s a diversionary program, meaning a veteran who gets into trouble with the law would have a chance to resolve that outside the regular court system. Also, the program is probationary.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker says she has several initiatives in mind for the next four years she’s in office, including added services in Eastern Jackson County.
“It’s a great job. It’s been fun. We’ve hit the ground literally running,” Peters Baker said in an interview with The Examiner. She was appointed to the position in May 2011 after Prosecutor James Kanatzar was appointed as a judge. She fills his term that runs to January 2013 and now will serve a full term running to January 2017 because she is running unopposed in this year’s primary and general elections.
One of the services she plans to expand into Eastern Jackson County falls under the heading of “neighborhood prosecutions,” a program begun in the 1990s – when Claire McCaskill was prosecutor and Peters Baker worked in that office – but that had faded over the years. There are 10 teams, all in the Kansas City at the moment, that focus on neighborhoods with high crime but also good community support. The idea is to bring charges swiftly, in a matter of days or a few weeks instead of the more typical three months.
“We still need to have a solid investigation. We still need to protect people’s constitutional rights,” Peters Baker stressed, adding that the aim is “identifying red targets, for lack of a better phrase.”
She did not have a time frame for getting that program to Eastern Jackson County, but more broadly an expansion of services is coming during the next couple of years as well. The county is renovating the Truman Courthouse on the Independence Square, and that will free up space for some offices – in turn opening up space for more judges and prosecutors in and near the Courthouse Annex on Kansas Avenue just off the Square. Peters Baker said the added space for her office will be at Lexington and Pleasant (in the building that housed The Examiner until 1980 and that the county still calls “The Examiner building”). As it stands now, assistant prosecutors don’t even have space to meet with the families of crime victims.
Last month, Peters Baker’s office launched a Veterans Court, an idea tried in various places around the country, as an effort to serve those who have served the country. The program is two-fold: It’s a diversionary program, meaning a veteran who gets into trouble with the law would have a chance to resolve that outside the regular court system. Also, the program is probationary.
Sometime substance abuse or anger management issues are at play in these cases, and Peters Baker said it’s crucial to work with organizations such as the Veterans Administration – which she called a “huge partner” – to point people to the help they need.
“It is really just pairing them with the right kind of services ...” she said.
Peters Bakers acknowledged that the county, which cut spending and cut people as the economy went into its 2007-09 tailspin, remains in a state of austerity. Her office, for example, had 75 assistant prosecutors under McCaskill in the mid-90s and has just 60 today (though she did add on in Independence earlier this year).
“We’re just got to figure out how to do with what we have,” she said.
With that in mind, she said top priorities in the years ahead will be making her office as efficient as possible, working on the courthouse space issues, and evaluating existing programs to make sure they’re working well.
The No. 1 issue her office sees, however, is simple.
“It’s violent crime, because violent crime permeates every community,” she said.
In addition to the immediate human tragedy, there are the lingering social and economic effects.
“It’s hard to calculate the impact of that,” she said.
