Know Your Numbers.

• Author: Scroggins, Dwight K., Jr.
• Position: Office time management

If YOU HAVE NOT SEEN the movie "Moneyball", you should probably go home and watch it before you read this article. Yes, the article is about using numbers to help run your office more efficiently regardless of size. This is not the end all article that will rock your world as a prosecutor. Everyone has things that work for them in their office in their circumstances. This is not an attempt to dissuade you from continuing those processes. But it is an attempt to get you to consider whether or not any of these ideas can improve where you are. Several years ago, we started tracking all kinds of numbers. With today's software and management programs, deciding what you want to capture is more difficult than deciding how to capture the numbers. This article is today's version of where we are and how it has been helpful.

So, about what numbers are we talking? Most of us can recite submissions by categories, filed and unfiled numbers, attorney caseloads, jury and judge tried cases and numbers from different submitting law enforcement agencies. Those are the numbers about which we are asked by the media and which we cite during budget discussions. They are important but not helpful in running our offices or managing our cases.

What numbers can be helpful in managing our cases, evaluating our processes and people and helping solve some of the problems common to prosecutor offices across the country? Ask yourself the following questions. Do you know the length of time on your different type felony offenses from occurrence to submission to filing to final disposition? Do you know how long it takes on a domestic violence case from time of occurrence to final disposition? Have you ever considered the length of time to disposition being a factor in whether or not you have continuingly cooperative victims in DV cases? Have you ever compared how long it takes different attorneys handling essentially the same type caseloads to dispose of their cases? What attorneys in your office have high caseload numbers because they are slow in disposing of their cases and which ones have high caseloads because they are getting too many cases assigned to them?

Here are some of our useful (to us) 2016 numbers and some of the benefits of knowing these numbers. Our magic number of docket calls for disposition of misdemeanors is three. It doesn't seem to matter how many days between docket calls. It just works out in our jurisdiction that defense attorneys and defendants are...