Incumbent Finds Primary Challenger In Former Deputy

Continued from Page of delays in recent data, much evidence is anecdotal. The latest annual report from the Arlington Police Department showed an overall crime increase of 4.8 percent from 2020 to 2021. (The Falls Church rate is about half of Arlington’s, according to an analysis by bestplaces.net.) And he agrees on the value of restorative justice, despite her skepticism of his commitment. “It is an invaluable tool in the justice arsenal,” he says, stressing its natural applicability in schools for such issues as bullying or destruction of property. “But it’s going to require a lot more work for the community to become fluent in this concept. No one wants to feel that this justice practice is being inflicted on them.”

Her charge that he is “not a reformer is blatantly political,” Katcher says. “She knows I believe in reform. I spent more time sitting with Parisa talking and writing about my philosophy than most kids applying for college.” His decision to quit a job he loved was done

“with a heavy heart.”

When there’s a changeover in the Commonwealth attorney job, staff prosecutors are “not automatically rehired and sworn in,” so he competed well enough to stay on and later win the deputy job. “What we’re really talking about is the value of relationships—with judges, police, victims,” he adds, citing his experience leading the Bar Association and teaching law classes. Katcher’s version of reform would mean “drawing a line between the cases the county wants prosecuted—murder, rape, gangs, drug trafficking—on which the left and right agree, and on the other side where “policy has failed”—treatment of the mentally ill, the homeless, the addicted, youth offenders.

“Police officers and judges increasingly are open-minded about giving defendants treatment,” he says. “If we describe the law-andorder approach as ‘one size-fits-all for incarceration,’ my reforms say, ‘Let’s humanize and contextualize, with a more nuanced approach.’ Katcher would like to see “a second genera- tion of prosecutors like me take hold of the reform baton and run with it.”

Dehghani-Tafti rejects the notion of rising crime—she’s aware of a recent study by Smartasset.com listing Arlington among the safest localities. “It’s more visible now, with reform prosecutors increasing crime reporting,” she says. “No one person can make crime go away—it’s cyclical—and people have lost faith in institutions,” she adds. “I saw cracks in the system” exposed by the pandemic—displacement, suffering, grief, trauma, “like we’ve never seen before. Small things like road rage,” she adds. The county’s Human Services Department can’t retain enough clinicians when mental health complaints are rising. She is upbeat, however, about the rise in cases being diverted to the special drug court, which she would like to see expanded.

The incumbent has been endorsed by top Democrats: Rep. Don Beyer and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan (recently elected to U.S. Congress); County Clerk Paul

Ferguson; Del. Patrick Hope and former Del. Jennifer Carol Foy; county board members Matt de Ferranti and Takis Karontonis; and former school board member Monique O’Grady. Katcher plans to announce endorsements later this spring. The Arlington Committee on Police has yet to endorse, says president Randall Mason, as they’re concentrating on pay and vacancy issues. “We try not to be political in races such as for county board,” he says. “But this election has a direct impact,” so they will endorse before June.

Katcher is confident he raised more money than Dehghani-Tafti in the last quarter, “which shows an appetite for this challenge among the community and small donors—people power,” he says. The incumbent rejects the frequent criticism that she accepts too much outside money from Restorative Justice advocates. “Look at what I’ve raised on my own locally,” she says. “Because the role of a prosecutor is misunderstood, a lot of the campaign is about education to reach people. That takes money.”

Walking in Falls Church, Katcher feels a “receptiveness to his arguments,” characterizing the smaller community as “similar to Arlington in that people are tuned in to what they want from [the] government, with high expectations.”

Dehghani-Tafti says Police Chief Mary Gavin, while working with her well on serious cases, has “instilled a sense that feels like community policing. Falls Church is not quick to penalize, and each official makes the effort to be part of the community.”

She also says she now has “good relationships with police and judges,” casting herself as a “problem solver. I have tried very hard to build relationships and find common ground while maintaining distance and professionalism,” she says. “I can’t do it and keep everyone happy while making unpopular decisions. Change is hard. It’s not fast or easy.”