Prosecutors at Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit are making dents in a backlog of thousands of non-arrest cases that still need to be processed.
Compared to last January, there are now 33% fewer non-arrest cases in need of processing, according to data shared Thursday by Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell. In January of last year, there were 13,675 non-arrest cases in the backlog; now, there are 9,182.
“That’s still a lot of cases, but we are down quite a bit,” Worrell said, speaking at a press conference Thursday. “The policy to reduce the number of non-arrest cases that we receive in this office is working.”
Breaking down the backlog
Worrell’s office announced that policy last April, telling law enforcement agencies within Orange and Osceola counties that the office would no longer accept most non-arrest cases for review and consideration of potential charges. Attorney General James Uthmeier said that policy was “not acceptable,” and sent in six prosecutors to help Worrell’s office whittle down the 13,000-case backlog…