Community Prosecution Initiatives

Programs

The Special Projects and Community Affairs Bureau administers several community prosecution initiatives.

  1. SMART Program
  2. Narcotics Eviction Program
  3. Conviction Integrity Program
  4. It’s On Us Orange County, N.Y.
  5. The Uncommon Athlete
  6. Immigrant Affairs Initiative

The SMART (Strategic Methods Aimed at Reducing Truancy) Program brings the District Attorney into cases involving parents of truant students, when the parents refuse to cooperate with school officials to remedy the causes of their children’s truancy. The District Attorney’s authority is used as further incentive for parents to accept assistance or services to address the child’s truancy.

A parent who still refuses to cooperate could be charged with the crime of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Since the District Attorney began the program in the August 2014, no parent has been charged, and in every case where the District Attorney intervened, or could have intervened, the student has returned to a consistent pattern of school attendance.