I read with interest your April 25-May 1 article on City Councilwoman Liz Crowley’s (D-Middle Village) call to re-visit the existing funding formula that allocates city budget dollars to each of New York City’s district attorney offices.
I agree and believe that revisiting the existing workload formula is a critical step in ensuring that we in Queens receive the resources necessary to meet our constitutional and statutory obligations and our growing public safety needs.
Over the past decade, our caseload has grown substantially — last year we handled close to 78,000 cases — and we saw many emerging new and complex crime trends, including gang violence, financial exploitation of the elderly, crimes targeting our immigrant populations, Internet crimes against children, identity theft, computer crime and credit card fraud, among others.
It is critical that we fight for and receive the monies we deserve to address all of these needs effectively.
I welcome the challenge and am committed to working with the Council to ensure that we get our fair share of criminal justice dollars and the resources we need.
Richard Brown
Queens District Attorney
Kew Gardens
