As arrests plummeted, NYC DAs hired 900 new employees over past decade
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Late Queens District Attorney Richard Brown hired 25 new assistant district attorneys in 2018. They filled some of the 213 staff positions added to the office since 2010, according to an analysis by the Independent Budget Office. Photo courtesy of Queens DA’s Office, file
By David Brand
An ongoing movement to decrease funding to the NYPD dominated Council budget negotiations this past spring, eventually spurring some spending cuts and modest structural changes.
Though the grassroots activism prompted line-by-line analysis of police department hiring and finances, another sector of local law enforcement, New York City’s prosecutors’ offices, avoided substantial scrutiny.
There were no “Defund the DA” signs placed in apartment windows in Bushwick, and few examined the number of people working for the city’s five district attorneys and special narcotics prosecutor.
But a report published last month by the Independent Budget Office shines some light on the ballooning staff totals at the six prosecutors’ offices, where hiring surged by 31 percent from 2010 to 2019, even as arrests steadily decreased every year.
Overall, the number of city-funded full-time staff members working for the six prosecutors has risen from 3,585 full-time employees to 4,511 over the past decade, according to the IBO report.
There were 4,688 city-funded employees working for the six prosecutors as of May 31 — more than triple the number of city-funded staffers working in those offices 40 years ago, the report shows. Some of those new positions likely replaced roles previously paid for by the state or federal government, the IBO said. There were 500 such positions in 1980 compared to fewer than 150 in May.
The new city-funded hires far outpace the loss of state and federally-funded positions, however.
A combined 1,551 people worked for New York City’s five DAs and special narcotics prosecutor in 1980. Today, that’s roughly the same number of city-funded staff members employed by Manhattan DA Cy Vance alone, according to the IBO.
Table courtesy of the IBO
The city allocated $456 million to the six prosecutors in the most recent budget, up from about $423 million last year.
Katie Schaffer, the advocacy and organizing director at the organization Center for Community Alternatives, called the staffing and funding increases “unconscionable” at a time when “the city considers layoffs for tens of thousands of workers and as the harm of mass criminalization and systemic racism in the criminal legal system comes under heightened scrutiny.”
Councilmember Rory Lancman, the chair of the committee that oversees the various DAs, said the hiring surge merits additional review, especially amid the city’s current fiscal woes.
“I think as we’re looking to make cuts in every city agency, including the NYPD, we have to look at the DA’s Offices as well and look at sending that funding to programs that reduce their workload as opposed to paying lawyers to handle cases that probably shouldn’t be in the system at all,” said Lancman, a former candidate for Queens DA.
Hiring spikes, arrests plummet
The IBO’s report, released August 26, specifically sought to examine how staff levels have changed as arrests plummeted in New York City over the last decade. The number of arrests decreased in New York City every year between 2010 and 2019.
The IBO found that the ratio of staff members per arrest has ballooned over the past 10 years, at times by 50 percent. The report accounts for staff whose salaries are paid for by the city and notes that municipal funding makes up more than 97 percent of the prosecutors’ budgets.
Last year, the number of adult felony and misdemeanor arrests reached lows not seen since the early 1980s, when the Staten Island DA’s Office employed fewer than 35 people.
As of May 31, there were 201 people working for Staten Island DA Michael McMahon, according to the IBO. That’s more than double the 82 people working in office in 2010, according to the report.
All six offices have increased the number of people they employ over the past 10 years, but the Staten Island DA’s Office accounts for by far the largest percentage spike. Staten Island DA Michael McMahon did not respond to a request for comment.
The number of people working for Staten Island DA Michael McMahon has more than doubled since 2010, according to a report by the IBO. Photo by William Alatriste/City Council Photography
Manhattan DA Cy Vance increased his staff by 21 percent, from 1,245 employees in 2010 to 1,511 this year.
In 2019, Vance appeared before the City Council and requested $12 million for additional personnel and resources, but pointed out that his office generates revenue by prosecuting white collar criminals who pay penalties.
Vance’s spokesperson Emily Tuttle said the Manhattan DA’s Office is “thankful for the funding that helps us excel as a 21st century prosecutor's office.”
“We are proud that our white-collar investigations have allowed us to make substantial financial contributions to New York, including $1.24 billion to New York City (more than ten times our annual City funding) and $2.29 billion to New York State,” she added in an email.
In Queens, staffing has surged by 42 percent, from 509 employees in 2010 to 722 as of May 31. Queens DA Melinda Katz did not respond to a request for comment.
The Bronx DA’s Office has increased staffing by 47 percent over the past decade, from 680 employees in 2010 to 1,000 as of May 31.
A spokesperson for Bronx DA Darcel Clark referred to Clark’s past City Council testimony requesting additional money and highlighting the office’s community initiatives, including the Opioid Avoidance and Recovery program and the expansion of the Crime Victims Assistance Unit.
“We do not only prosecute people,” said spokesperson Patrice O’Shaughnessy. “Diversion and community programs and discovery reform require personnel.”
Indeed, not every new hire is an assistant district attorney prosecuting cases. Each office employs paralegals, technology professionals, communications staff, victims advocates and community engagement specialists as well as prosecutors.
Brooklyn DA’s Office spokesperson Oren Yaniv attributed his office’s 18 percent staffing increase since 2010 to diversion programs and new discovery reform requirements, which force prosecutors to turn over evidence and other materials to defendants within 15 days of arrest. The city allocated $26 million to the various DAs last year to comply with the new law.
The Brooklyn DA’s Office had 893 staff members in 2010 and employed 1,054 people as of May 31, according to the IBO.
The Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office also highlighted an increase in non-legal personnel. They, however, disputed the numbers presented by the IBO, which found that Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan had increased staffing by 13 percent over the past ten years, from 176 employees in 2010 to 200 as of May, according to the IBO.
Brennan’s spokesperson Kati Cornell said the office has actually gone from 209 employees in August 2010 to 223 in August 2020.
The different staff numbers presented the IBO and the special narcotics prosecutor may represent the number of employees whose salaries are paid by the state or federal government — staffers the IBO did not count in their analysis. Cornell said she did not know if that was the case.
She attributed the hiring to technological changes, community programs and “increasingly sophisticated investigations.”
“These complex investigations yield fewer arrests, consistent with the city’s goals to reduce incarceration, but make a greater impact,” Cornell said. “We formed an Investigative Analyst Unit, a Digital Forensic Unit and a Community Outreach Unit. We hired additional IT staff, as well as additional paralegals to assist attorneys with complex investigations.”
No stance on staff surge
IBO Senior Budget and Policy Analyst Bernard O’Brien said the agency does not take a position on office staffing levels and simply presents information to the public.
While the number of staff members per arrest has increased dramatically, some prosecutions require far more resources than others, O’Brien said.
“There could be a felony arrest for an insider trading offense on Wall Street that requires 30 lawyers and an arrest for assault that is a little more clear cut,” he said. “Not all arrests are created equal in terms of the level of resources that are needed to prosecute them.”
Whatever the reason — complex investigations, community initiatives, new discovery laws, an “if the money’s there, we’ll spend it” mentality — hiring is once again on the rise this year.
Every prosecutor in New York City except Bronx DA Darcel Clark hired more staff members between 2019 and May 2020, the IBO data shows.
Lancman, the chair of the Council’s Committee on the Justice System, said that one-year increase is likely the result of the new discovery law.
Nevertheless, he said, he’d like to see the swollen offices “shift their focus to areas of criminal justice that tend to have been de-emphasized by district attorneys,” like labor violations, landlord offenses and white-collar crime.
Despite all the new hiring. “these are crimes that for all practical purposes are committed with impunity,” he added.
