The Spokane County Prosecutor's office was way behind on property crime cases. But hiring more help this year allowed the office to catch up.
Some 300 cases sat waiting to be filed for about a year and half. A typical time frame is about a few weeks.
The prosecutor's office started falling behind in property crime cases because staff couldn't keep up with the increasing number of cases requested.
Prosecutor Larry Haskell points to the county's growing population and having additional officers in the field.
He said with more property crimes were being filed with law enforcement eyes on the streets, so he asked for additional help to catch up.
"There's the saying 'justice delayed is justice denied,' and I take that very seriously," Haskell said. "So it was very important to me that we get caught up."
Haskell asked county commissioners for the funds to hire two additional prosecutors to help his office catch up.
The board agreed but for only one year.
"I had told them I could do a lot, even if I only had the people for a year, to get back in line with where we should be with property crime cases," Haskell said.
He assigned two lawyers to property and early resolution cases, which has helped move things along.
He said, with their help, cases are now only sitting for about five days and they're down to about 25-30 cases behind.
"For me, it's about victim justice," Haskell said. "If there's a property crime and it's sitting in a backlog, then the victim's loss--either economic or whatever it happens to be-- isn't being attended to and we don't like that."
Haskell said this is a success he'll show the board of commissioners when he returns to ask to keep his two additional lawyers around for another year.