Community Programs
The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California is committed to serving its community. This service is comprised of both official activities and collateral duty assignments performed by members of the office during non-working hours.
For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office sponsors and administers the Greater Sacramento Area Hate Crimes Task Force, an organization that has attempted over the past several years to unite and mobilize the community in the fight against hate crime. The Task Force itself usually meets about once a year, in conjunction with a community forum. At these events, law enforcement leaders, members of the community, and others may speak on various topics, and the public has the opportunity to ask questions and comment on how law enforcement is doing and how it can improve. The Task Force has also sponsored a number of multi-day hate crime conferences in the Sacramento area, and workshops in other cities in the Eastern District of California. These events have served to heighten awareness of the issue and to increase cooperation and preparedness by law enforcement and the community.
The primary work of the Task Force is done through subcommittees. The Task Force's Law Enforcement and Community Subcommittee, chaired by community leader Dorothy Enomoto, meets three to four times per year at the U.S. Attorney's Office. Law enforcement and other civic and community groups make presentations, exchange information, and report on ongoing initiatives and issues relating to hate crime reporting, investigation and prosecution, and cooperation between law enforcement and the community. The Outreach Subcommittee, led by Booker Neal of the U.S. Community Relations Service, has responded to numerous requests by schools to mediate apparent racial and ethnic disputes among teachers, parents, administrators, and students. Finally, the recently established Schools Subcommittee, chaired by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, brings together Sacramento area school districts and law enforcement agencies to enhance coordination and develop common strategies for addressing hate crimes and bias incidents affecting schools. The Subcommittee has issued a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines a sustained initiative by educators and law enforcement in the Sacramento region, including procedures for a more cooperative intervention when a hate crime or serious bias incident occurs on school grounds, agreement on taking long term steps to foster education and prevention, and implementation of several specific, near term measures to enhance safety.
In addition, within the office, the United States Attorney's Office has a very active Special Emphasis Programs Committee, the mission of which is to identify problems, define issues, and recommend policies and solutions to management; to raise the status and fully integrate members within the congressionally designated Special Emphasis groups (African-American/Black Affairs, Federal Women's, Asian/Pacific American, Hispanic Employment, Selective Placement for Veterans and Persons with Disabilities and Native American) into career advancement positions throughout the United States Attorney's Office, as well as to assure the effective application of the USAO's non-discrimination and equal employment opportunity policy to all employees and applicants for employment who are within the congressionally designated Special Emphasis groups. Members of our Special Emphasis Programs Committee are involved in:
- coordinating the USAO's participation in outreach efforts providing information regarding the EEO process
- advising and making recommendations to management
- assisting in assessing the employment status of minorities, women and persons with disabilities so that employment problems might be identified and corrected
- developing and coordinating annual programs for special observances in recognition of designated Special Emphasis groups
For further information about the Special Emphasis Program, or for information on developing a special observance program, contact Special Emphasis Program Committee Chair Yoshinori Himel at Yoshinori.Himel@usdoj.gov.
In addition to these formal programs, members of the U.S. Attorney's Office staff participate in a wide variety of outside volunteer activities, including:
- Speaking to schools and community service groups (any such requests should be directed to Carolyn K. Delaney, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, (916) 554-2700 - we will try to accommodate such requests to the extent compatible with our litigation responsibilities);
- Participating in Mock Trial programs, such as the California High School Mock Trial competition;
- Participating in Drug Awareness events.