By Abigail Klein
TUCSON, AZ – Pima County District Attorney Laura Conover talked about—in an article this past week for Tucson.com—progress made under her administration.
Conover nodded to the recently victorious Pima County Civil Division, whose “brilliant lawyers” have passed an agreement to “provide 10 gun locks to every single TUSD school along with a supporting educational campaign to keep firearms out of the hands of children to reduce accidental and suicidal incidents.”
Conover said her three-year administration has been marked by public health and safety initiatives like the recent TUSD agreement. Yet, she adds in the Tucson.com story, voices of the previous Pima County administration unjustly purport “their own ‘facts’” regarding her tenure.
The DA maintains, “Misinformation and disinformation cannot go unaddressed,” and in what Conover claims is an attempt to set the record straight, reports on “the actual record of the people’s office.”
Addressing the significant crime reductions achieved under her administration, Conover tells Tucson.com, “Homicides in particular are at a 34 percent reduction from this point two years ago, outperforming the nation and the rest of the state.”
Regarding preventative efforts, Conover reports her administration distributed a total of “18,463 gun locks on nights and weekends last year,” adding a “Public Service Announcement about calling 911 in case of overdose that we produced with our Police Chief and County Sheriff is making an impact in keeping people alive.”
Conover explains in Tucson.com her administration has adopted an “aggressive charging and detention standard” when “a defendant poses an ongoing threat of harm.”
In comparison to the previous administration, Conover argues, “our violent crime units are better resourced, holding violent actors accountable, because we have moved substance use disorder and mental health safely back to public health instead of criminalizing illness as a felony.”
On reproductive health litigation, Conover writes, “…we reversed the Office’s previous course, we took on then-Attorney General Brnovich, and we won the Appellate Court Order still in place today protecting reproductive health services statewide.”
Conover said her administration has revitalized the previously unstable Victim Services division, and adds she is particularly proud of the division’s move to specially deputize “Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O’odham tribal prosecutors to better serve indigenous victims.” She hails the initiative as a “first-in-the-nation action.”
Administratively, Conover is pleased to report that she “secured the Office’s first agency-wide salary increase since 1997,” noting the administration has abandoned the “paper file system” and is “joining the modern world online.” She also cites demographic changes, celebrating a “record-breaking hiring and promoting of women and people of color.”
Conover humorously admits in Tucson.com she is “guilty as charged” when it comes to the accusation that she has “ushered in significant change,” noting “Pima County voted for change, and progress is being delivered.”
