Unfortunately, violent crimes have been on the rise in recent years and shooting homicides also grew. In 2010, there were 30% more shooting incidents than the previous year. “Most of the violent activity is centered around gangs and drugs,” said Vance, adding that the department has been bulking up its team of prosecutors who can ultimately build cases against violent offenders. The DA’s office also created a cold case unit, which is tasked with solving any number of the 3,000 odd unsolved homicide cases in New York City.

But the area garnering the most attention is cyber crimes, which covers everything from identity theft to child pornography. “Developments in technology have really changed the way crimes are committed,” Vance noted. “In a way, the Internet is the crime scene of the 21^st Century.” In the case of identity theft, the department sees 200 to 300 new cases to each month. But it seems that the department is making some strides. Last September the office indicted 36 members of a cyber crime ring and earlier this month another 27 were charged with credit card identity theft.

Vance is also taking some aggressive steps to find alternatives to prison for non-violent criminals. “Over half of state and federal inmates exhibit sights of mental illness,” he said. Vance hopes to start a mental health court that would divert non-violent members there to determine a course of psychological treatment, with the goal to reduce the chance of re-offense. “This is much better than warehousing the mentally ill,” he said to great applause. “It will also help us to achieve greater public safety. And my goal as district attorney is to strive for safety and fairness--the twin sides of justice.”