In addition to this essential prosecution function, we also perform other tasks and services that may not be as readily apparent to the casual observer. Those activities include:

1. The Civil Division of the Rice County Attorney's Office brings forfeiture cases against assets, which are used, in facilitating criminal activity.
2. We represent the State on most appeals to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, Supreme Court and federal courts taken from criminal files in our office.
3. We conduct the criminal prosecution for all felonies that occur within the state correctional facility that is located within our County. This is an interesting and challenging part of our work, but also adds a significant burden to the workload of the office.
4. We assist law enforcement agencies in preparing search warrants and administrative subpoenas if requested to do so.
5. We assist law enforcement by providing training sessions on various topics involved in law enforcement efforts.

In order to accomplish our mission, the Criminal Division continually tries to improve in our efforts and activities. One of the key factors we continually scrutinize is the time it takes to make a decision and process a request for prosecution made by a law enforcement agency. Our goal is to make charging decisions within 30 days of a referral while still maintaining the quality of our decision making in the face of an ever-increasing case load.

Our ability to accomplish this goal has been enhanced by our increased use of the computer system in our office. We use a calendar system known as MCAPS. We also regularly use email within the office.

One of our primary goals is to both do justice and make sure that the perception of the public is that we are in fact doing justice. In this regard, we have a different role than do criminal defense lawyers. We follow a philosophy of aggressive prosecution, tempered with fairness and compassion. Along these lines, a pretrial felony diversion project, which was mandated by the State Legislature and developed by our office with the help of Rice County Community Corrections, was instituted in January of 2000. The program assists in reducing some of the stress on the court system and as a result saves the taxpayers money at no cost to the public safety.