Victims’ rights are also a priority for Ursula Jones Dickson
“I don’t like it when people say ‘my office.’ It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the people.”
That philosophy is at the heart of Ursula Jones Dickson’s approach to leading the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Asked whether one person can rebuild an office that has experienced years of change, disruption and a massive backlog of cases, she said the answer is ‘yes,’ but only with time, focus and a willingness to change priorities.
“One person can affect policy that changes the office,” Jones Dickson said.
For her, one of the most urgent priorities is gun violence, an issue she says has deeply affected Black communities for generations.
“Gun violence has always been a concern in the Black community,” she said. “We all have a visceral reaction to a helicopter because it often means there has been a chase or gun violence.”
Jones Dickson said gun violence is personal to her because it has hurt both her and her community. “I take it personally,” she said.
She worries that America, and particularly its young people, are becoming desensitized to violence. School shootings and repeated lockdowns are leaving children with experiences previous generations never imagined.
“We can’t act like this isn’t affecting our children,” she said. “When schools become places where shootings take place, they are affected in a different way.”
She believes the community has become dangerously accustomed to guns and violence.
“We have to stop normalizing guns,” she said. “We have so many guns and so many people with guns.”
Perhaps one of the most disturbing changes she sees is the way ordinary disagreements can now become deadly.
“Nobody fights anymore,” she said. “They kill.”
Jones Dickson said the question communities must ask themselves is: “When gun violence becomes a part of the community, how many vigils and how many marches can we stand?”
At the same time, she is determined that victims’ voices will not be lost in the criminal justice system.
“I sit with victims on a regular basis,” she said. “There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t sit down with a victim’s family and hear them ask why a case has not been charged.”
Victims often need far more than updates about a court case. They need assistance navigating the criminal justice system, counseling, burial assistance and, sometimes, simply someone to sit with them during one of the most painful moments of their lives.
“Victims’ rights have been pushed aside,” Jones Dickson said. “What I want to leave to this office is that victims’ voices will be heard. I don’t care whose toes I step on. Victims will be heard.”
The challenge, however, is enormous. Her legacy is to help victims feel seen and protected.
The office is working through a significant backlog of serious cases while trying to rebuild an experienced, well-trained staff. Jones Dickson said years of disruption, including the impact of COVID and frequent leadership changes, left attorneys needing additional training and contributed to delays.
“There have been three district attorneys in four years,” she said. “Every district attorney wants to build their own culture.”
Her goal is to create a stable office with skilled prosecutors who understand their responsibilities and can move cases through the courts. She emphasized that the work is not simply about winning cases.
“It is our job to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said. “Just because law enforcement brings us a case doesn’t mean we can prove it.”
Jones Dickson also believes rebuilding public safety requires rebuilding relationships between law enforcement and the community.
Residents have told her they sometimes see police cars drive through their neighborhoods without officers getting out and speaking to residents.
“When police are in neighborhoods and stop and talk to kids, there is a connection,” she said. “We need more community-based relationships.”
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