Officials congratulate DA-elect Seth Williams
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Philadelphia's Mayor and Police Commissioner both publicly congratulated the newly elected District Attorney on Wednesday. Mayor Nutter and Commissioner Ramsey said they look forward to working with D.A.-elect Seth Williams. Williams has his sights set on fixing what he calls a broken criminal justice system.
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Seth Williams says under Lynne Abraham, the District Attorney's office has been inefficient both financially and in terms of prosecutions. One of his ideas is to re-organize the Assistant D.A.s along geographic lines – so they can focus on specific police districts.
He also says going after straw purchasers and the underground gun market will be his number one priority.
Williams: Guns aren't being made at 52nd and Florence. People are bringing them into the 12th district and selling them. I want to more aggressively – through grand juries, wiretaps, sting operations – shut down the flow commerce in illegal guns.
The city's Inspector General said she has spoken with Williams about setting up a public integrity task force to root out municipal corruption. The city administration already has an ethics board and an integrity office.