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Public defender: sharp drop in domestic-violence filings offset by rises in other cases; council asks for deeper review
Summary
Public defender staff told the committee an 83% year-over-year reduction in domestic-violence filings has been largely offset by a 33% increase in non-DV cases, producing only a 3% net decline in new cases; members requested a study session and client-level reporting to reconcile differing counts.
The Public Safety Committee heard a data briefing from the public defender’s office on how the cessation of new domestic-violence (DV) filings since July 2025 has affected defender workload and court metrics.
Fatima Taboo, manager of administration and finance for the public defender’s office, told the committee the office has not seen a proportional drop in overall caseload because non-DV cases have risen. “We have seen an 83% reduction year over year, January to June 2025 versus January to June 2026 in DV cases,” Taboo said, and added that the office also recorded a 33% increase in non-DV cases over the same period. That combination, she said, produced only a 3% decrease overall in new cases.
Taboo explained the office’s reporting terms: an ‘‘opened’’ case is when the public defender first engages with a matter (for example, when a defender sees a person held in custody), which may occur at a different time than the date a case was filed in court. She said that difference, and the use of separate systems, accounts for some inconsistencies between prosecutor/court filing counts and public defender ‘‘opened’’ counts.
Court administration staff provided complementary figures. Candace Atkinson, court administrator/detention director, reported 749 open DV cases, 121 active DV failure-to-appear (FTA) matters, and 45 cases pending disposition; staff said many open files may reflect warrant or probation statuses rather than active future court dockets. Committee members pressed staff for client-level counts versus case/summons counts and asked whether the same case could be double-counted because of system timing; staff said the public defender’s system uses one summons number as one case and that the office can run reports by client or by case on request.
Members requested a focused follow-up study session with both the public defender’s office and court staff to reconcile reporting differences, produce client-level counts, and supply additional breakdowns ahead of budget deliberations.
The briefing did not include any formal vote or policy change; committee members said the data will inform further budget and operational discussions.
