New Alameda County DA says she'll 'do things a little different'

Ursula Jones Dickson said she plans to hit the ground running as Alameda County's new district attorney and has already selected Annie Esposito as her second-in-command.

She outlined some of her initial thoughts in a brief interview with members of the media after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday night.

On next steps: "The DA's office really has to get down to brass tactics, right? So we've got to get the police reports in, figure out what can be charged, and then how we move with those cases."

"Some of that's going to be diversion. I've had collaborative courts my entire career as a judge. Some of that is going to have to be a prosecution, maybe a trial. We have to just get down to what a DA does. And figure out who you have trying to do that work."

She'll take a close look at staffing: "I'm concerned that maybe about a third of our lawyers have not really been doing this before. They were hired by Ms. Price, so that's what it is."

On her new assignment: "I feel great. I mean, I love being a judge. I love the work that I do daily with individuals. So I know I'll miss that, and I'm kind of grieving that at the moment."

"I know I can do a lot of work for the community, more work for the community this way," she added.

It won't be the first time a sitting Bay Area judge has stepped down from the bench to become the district attorney.

Diana Becton was a judge in Contra Costa County before being appointed to the district attorney role in 2017.

" It has happened before," Jones Dickson told reporters after Tuesday night's decision. "Sounds crazy. But this is good work and I can touch more people this way — because I've always just been a public servant."

Read Ursula Jones Dickson's complete application.

The Board of Supervisors had planned to appoint the next DA on Feb. 4 but that may depend on how fast Jones Dickson can clear out her cases.

She said she's hoping for Feb. 4.

"At that point, I got to get in and see who's where in what department," she said. "When I looked at the org chart, there are a lot of positions I don't understand what people are doing, so I just need to know what that is so we can put folks in the right place."

"And we need to get our charging together," she added. "Clearly, there are a bunch of cases that aren't being charged in a timely manner. But it's just basics, like, who's in the seat?"

Jones Dickson said she will be looking to Elgin Lowe and Jimmie Wilson, both veteran prosecutors in the Alameda County DA's office who were also DA finalists, to help her sort it out.

The judge said her full executive team is "ready to go" — but declined to name names Tuesday night aside from fellow DA finalist Annie Esposito.

Asked what her approach would be given the two main camps of public commenters at Tuesday's meeting — those prioritizing alternatives and reform and those pushing for more accountability and traditional policing — Jones Dickson said she stands "somewhere in the middle."

She continued: " I think we've lost the ability, because I've not been a politician, to find folks who are moderate."

Jones Dickson said the role of the district attorney is to "prosecute if necessary" — but it doesn't end there.

"Prosecution doesn't necessarily mean that we can't divert people away from the criminal justice system," she said. "That's what we do in collaborative courts. That's what I've done for 11 years, so that's not unusual. Having said that, I do think that people are a little tired of nothing happening."

Ursula Jones Dickson: "We can't be beholden to anyone"

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