(KCPW News) Salt Lake County has a new District Attorney as Democrat Sim Gill officially took office yesterday, replacing Republican Lohra Miller. Miller’s one term as DA came with several controversies, and Gill says it will be a challenge to gain the trust of his employees.
“We have to sort of get a sense of what is working, what is not working, and what is it that really needs resources infused in order to find the efficiencies that we want to have,” says Gill. “The other thing is to really empower the support staff and the attorneys to know that we are here to work in a collaborative way, build that trust back with everybody here.”
Gill says his biggest short-term priority is implementing the Early Case Resolution system. He says it’s a collaborative effort between judges, courts, and attorneys to attempt to get minor cases resolved on their first appearance, and free up resources to prosecute other cases more aggressively. Gill hopes to have the ECR in place by February 7th. And he has several other priorities.
“Building our relationship with local law enforcement is high on our agenda. Building our relationship with the local cities from the civil side, as well as the criminal side, is going to be an issue,” says Gill. “So those are the kind of issues that are immediately on our focus.”
Gill beat Miller with 51 percent of the vote during the November election. It was his second bid for Salt Lake County District Attorney.
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