Neighborhoods fell apart, crime soared, businesses fled, and residents were unsafe. Angry voters are responding by electing pragmatic prosecutors — attorneys who vow to get tough on crime and restore law and order.

This Washington Examiner spoke to four of the men and women who say they are bringing change for the better to their jurisdictions: Baltimore County State’s Attorney Ivan Bates; Albany, New York’s newest district attorney, Lee Kindlon; Alameda County’s newest district attorney, Judge Ursula Jones Dickson; and Nathan Vasquez, the district attorney for Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland, Oregon.

Read our full coverage below:

Baltimore County: Convictions surge with state’s attorney’s ‘smart on crime’ policies

It has been two years since Baltimore County State’s Attorney Ivan Bates ousted his progressive predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, a high-profile prosecutor who aligned herself with the criminal justice reform movement that had swept across the country.

Mosby, like other progressive prosecutors, bent laws to tilt the scales of justice in favor of criminals in the name of reform. The disastrous results were pretty predictable. Her policies failed, crime increased, and public safety decreased.

But Bates’s no-nonsense approach to crime and dogged determination to hold all lawbreakers accountable created a seismic shift in how crime and punishment would be tackled in Maryland’s largest city.

Read the full story here.

Albany County: Top officer targets big players in drug and gun pipeline

Lee Kindlon, who is Albany, New York’s newest district attorney, is taking lessons he learned as a U.S. Marine and applying them to his position as the county’s top officer.

His mission is to train an elite team of prosecutors, support staff, and investigators to be rock-solid in the cases they prosecute and then trust them to make sound decisions.

Kindlon, who has been on the job for about a month, is part of a wave of Democratic prosecutors who made a conscious shift to the middle.

Gone are the days of letting crime slide in the name of reform. This new group of district attorneys and state attorneys are acutely aware the public doesn’t feel safe and that some communities have deep-rooted trust problems with law enforcement. Striking the right balance is key, he told the Washington Examiner in a wide-ranging interview — and he is big on accountability. 

Read the full story here.

Alameda County: New district attorney vows to remake troubled office

In November, frustrated residents recalled Alameda County’s then-District Attorney Pamela Price, one of the country’s most progressive prosecutors. Price was bankrolled by liberal megadonor George Soros.

Under her watch, thousands of cases were dropped after her office missed filing deadlines. There were countless others it simply chose not to proceed with. Then came the widespread complaints that the district attorney’s office shut its doors to victims, refused to hear their concerns, or didn’t keep them updated on case development. Her office was repeatedly accused of prioritizing the rights of criminals in the name of reform.

NEWSOM FACES PRESSURE FROM CALIFORNIA GOP TO FUND CRIME REFORM ‘MANDATE’

Price’s recall was a huge blow to the type of criminal justice reform she championed and sent a strong message that the community wasn’t going to put up with prosecutors who turned a blind eye to them.

Judge Ursula Jones Dickson, the county’s newest district attorney, was among 15 candidates in the running to be its top officer — and she was uniquely qualified. She worked as a deputy district attorney in the county for 15 years before spending the next dozen as a superior court judge. She was appointed in 2013 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and was reelected in 2016 and 2022.

Dickson said she is committed to “rebuilding trust” within the office and community as well as fostering a “positive and collaborative relationship with law enforcement and the courts.”

Read the full story here.

Multnomah County: DA breaks with predecessor, says all crimes will be charged

Nathan Vasquez used to be an intern at the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. Now, he is the top officer and ready to reverse years of progressive policies that turned Portland into the poster child for civil disorder.

Vasquez took office last month after ousting his boss, Mike Schmidt. He told the Washington Examiner that the days of the district attorney’s office not prosecuting people for rioting, disorderly conduct, or other low-level charges are over.

Now that he’s in charge, Vasquez has vowed to change course and said he would seek charges against any demonstrator who breaks the law, be it from the “left, right, or center.”

“We went through some very turbulent times, and out of that, public safety really suffered,” he said. “To be successful as a community, we need a baseline of public safety. My goal is to rebuild our public safety system to get us back to the healthy community that we had been for years and years.”

Read the full story here.