Adam's Accountability Agenda
For Norfolk County
Under my leadership as District Attorney, accountability, on every level, will be a theme that permeates all aspects of the Norfolk County DA's office:
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We will hold criminals accountable and keep Norfolk County safe by building and running an office defined by fairness, competence, trust, and professionalism.
We will be accountable to survivors, victims, and their family members by putting them at the center of everything we do.
We will hold ourselves accountable to the public through transparent and open communication, implementing principles and practices of data-driven prosecution, ensuring prosecutors and investigators adhere to the highest ethical standards, and eliminating all politics from the work of the office.
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Under my leadership as District Attorney, creating and fostering a culture of openness and transparency will be a top priority.
We will transform how the DA’s Office communicates with the community by:
Hosting a series of public town halls across the county in our first year, giving residents direct access to the DA’s Office.
Launching a modern, accessible website with current data, working links, and regular updates so the public can easily understand what the office is doing and why.
Publicizing the good work the office is doing consistently and proactively, while dramatically expanding engagement by DA’s Office staff in communities across the county.
We will transform the Norfolk DA’s Office into a beacon for the recruitment, training, and retention of the absolute best aspiring prosecutors in Massachusetts.
We will overhaul the office’s training program to ensure that every new ADA receives rigorous, hands-on instruction in discovery, grand jury practice, trial advocacy, ethics, evidence, and trauma-informed practice.
We will invest in continuing professional development, including mentorship, advanced litigation training, and increased opportunities to learn from experienced prosecutors and trial lawyers.
Fairness, excellence, professionalism, and accountability will be core values of the office, and we will make clear that these values — and not just winning — define success.
I believe that any forward-thinking DA’s Office needs to creatively collect, analyze, and utilize data, both for internal and external purposes. We will accomplish this by:
Adopting and implementing a modern case tracking and management system to guide resource allocation, improve efficiency, reduce bias, and achieve better outcomes.
Using data to evaluate office performance and refine policies, rather than relying on assumptions or outdated practices.
Launching a public-facing dashboard with regularly-updated metrics
We will put survivors and victims at the center of everything we do by:
Strengthening and expanding victim services so that every survivor, victim, and witness has access to the resources and support they need.
Prioritizing prevention, diversion, and restorative justice, all the while acknowledging and addressing systemic biases.
Confronting the substance use and opioid crises directly through a data-driven approach that emphasizes education, treatment, and long-term support (including assistance in facilitating support after release for incarcerated defendants with substance use disorder).
As District Attorney, I will establish an Anti-Corruption Task Force to aggressively identify and investigate allegations of corruption in Norfolk County by, among other things:
Designating a senior prosecutor to lead a countywide task force, working in partnership with local, state, and, where appropriate, federal law enforcement departments and agencies to implement coordinated anti-corruption measures throughout Norfolk County.
Aggressively investigating, prosecuting, and eradicating any and all corruption in the county.
Creating a confidential reporting hotline for public employees and members of the community to report allegations of corruption and misconduct without fear of retaliation.
Over the course of my career, I’ve partnered with the Innocence Project to advocate on behalf of folks who were wrongfully convicted of serious, violent crimes — including in cases where prosecutors and law enforcement rushed to judgment or relied on flawed forensic evidence — and where, as a result, the real perpetrators went free. In Norfolk County, we will build a real Conviction Integrity Unit that proactively and independently reviews cases where serious questions have been raised.
The unit will be based on nationally-recognized principles for such units: independence, flexibility, transparency, and prevention.
This unit will affirmatively review cases with known red flags, in addition to fielding requests from members of the public.
Members of the unit will be trained by national-level experts and ultimately work with DA’s Office staff throughout the office to implement preventative measures in current and future investigations.
When violent crimes are committed or when tragedy strikes, victims and their families are entitled to answers, accountability, and justice. Too often, unresolved or uncharged cases leave families without closure and communities without confidence that justice will be served.
We will create a dedicated Cold Case Unit to review and investigate unsolved violent felony cases to pursue accountability and closure for victims and their families.
A dedicated prosecution and investigation team will be designated to review and investigate all unsolved or otherwise unresolved cases with fresh eyes.
We will designate a team of prosecutors and staff within the DA’s Office to confront the rise in fraud targeting older residents. The Elder Fraud Engagement Team will:
Aggressively investigate and prosecute elder fraud and abuse across Norfolk County.
Engage within our community to educate seniors and their family members proactively about how to recognize and prevent fraud before it happens.
We will launch a Hate Crimes Task Force in response to rising hate crimes and growing community concern. The task force will:
Bring together prosecutors, law enforcement, and community leaders to share information and best practices.
Meet regularly to assess trends, set priorities, and coordinate responses that keep harm from targeted communities and protect civil rights.
Investigate and aggressively prosecute hate crimes and state-level civil rights violations.
Under my leadership, we will eliminate politics from the work of the DA’s Office, full stop:
I will not, now or ever, accept campaign contributions from any employee of the office.
We will set clear ethical standards for the office by modeling rules for political activity (including and especially as it pertains to the DA’s race!) after the principles of the Hatch Act.
We will establish crystal-clear rules for conflicts of interest for both prosecutors and SPDU investigators. Members of the SPDU will be prohibited from participating in investigations where conflicts are identified, period.