LAKE BLACKSHEAR, GA (WALB) -
When it comes to law enforcement, everyone knows about the police. You may not think about the prosecutors. Their job is to make sure that the guilty find their way behind bars. And that job has changed dramatically in the last few decades.
Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson said, "the biggest change that I've seen is just the incredible increase in case load."
Patterson has been in the Floyd County District Attorney's office since 1991. And one of the biggest changes since then involves the technology in use among the DAs.
"When I started in 1990, we didn't have laptops in the courtroom. We didn't even have stationary computers in the offices," said Patterson.
This week, about three dozen of the elected District Attorneys in Georgia gathered at the Lake Blackshear resort. With crime occasionally spilling over county lines, getting together with other DAs is important.
Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards said, "we have a lot of instances where defendants have offenses that cross jurisdictional lines and the camaraderie, knowing the names and the face of the person working on the same issues is important."
The serenity of Lake Blackshear hid the fact that crime is still a problem in the state of Georgia. But some of the things that the District Attorneys are learning here at the Lake Blackshear Resort will hopefully reduce the crime rate and keep Georgia citizens safe.
The DAs learned about new technology such as translator software, which can help in cases involving Hispanics. Cases that are becoming more frequent in south Georgia.
"We have a growing Hispanic population in Dougherty County and as I've always state we're going to be doing what we can to embrace our Hispanic population," said Edwards.
With greater case loads, the new technology available to DAs could have another benefit.
Patterson said, "I think it will speed up trials, especially if you have large numbers of exhibits, like large numbers of photographs, paper documents."
So if the conviction numbers go up and more of the guilty go to jail, then the streets of South Georgia will be safer.
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