Prosecutors' offices must have the capacity to effectively and efficiently fulfill their ethical obligations. Performance indicators centered on the goals of Capacity and Efficiency assess whether the DA's Office has the staffing/resources it needs, prioritizes cases in a way to make efficient and effective use of those resources, and resolves cases in a timely manner.
What kinds of questions can we ask? We can think about this as answering a few questions: Is the Office staffed the way we want it staffed? Are we making decisions effectively, by dismissing bad cases or diverting the appropriate cases? Are we making decisions efficiently within appropriate timelines and by prioritizing the right cases?
Data on this site are based on the most detailed information available at the time of publication. All data will be regularly updated as more details about cases become available. There are many factors that could affect the results on these Indicators. The data presented here are intended to show general patterns and to highlight areas that might need further investigation. For more details on data and definitions, read our glossary.
Prosecutor's offices increasingly serve diverse communities. Office leadership and line prosecutors should reflect this diversity in order to better represent local residents and understand their problems, needs, and priorities.
The charts below show the percent of leadership and prosecutor positions occupied by non-white individuals. By 2023, roughly 40% of leadership and prosecutor positions were occupied by non-white prosecutors.
High turnover in prosecutor's offices negatively affects productivity and results in wasted resources. Staff attrition also disrupts workplace cohesion and job satisfaction among those who remain in the office. The Santa Clara County DA’s Office has been able consistently to fill positions that become open as people leave for retirement or other reasons – this is not the case for DA’s offices across the country that suffer from unfilled vacancies.
The chart below shows the percent of staff leaving the DA's Office each year. Historically, just 5% of staff - attorneys, paralegals, and support staff - leave the Office in any given year. The average turnover rate for businesses in the United States is above 17%.
Identifying dismissible cases at the case screening stage reduces negative consequences for defendants, victims, and the criminal justice system.
The charts below show the percent of cases rejected at initial review by quarter. The rejection rate for felony charges in Santa Clara County - 23% in 2023 - is different than in some other Counties in California. In San Francisco, for example, the felony rejection rate in 2023 was 36.7%; in Yolo County, it was 24.8%. This is in part due to efforts the Santa Clara County DA’s Office makes to work with law enforcement agencies so that they know in advance the evidence needed to prosecute a crime.
High volumes of minor felony and misdemeanor filings can overwhelm prosecutor’s offices and take away time and resources from more serious cases that pose greater public safety risks.
The chart below shows the percent of cases filed with a felony as the top charge by quarter. In 2019, the percent of cases filed as felonies rose because the overall filing of misdemeanor cases fell as the DA's Office started referring most low level drug offenders to treatment rather than filing a criminal case. This shows the increased focus on felonies, the most serious crimes, in the DA’s Office, in recent years especially.
Lengthy court cases cause additional hardship for defendants and victims, require unnecessary expenditures, and add to backlogs in the court system. In California, 67% of felony cases are disposed of in less than 1 year.
The charts below show the average and median number of days from filing to disposition for felony and misdemeanor cases by quarter. There are several factors that affect the delays in the disposition of cases. Court availability is a key one. During and after COVID, courtroom availability plummeted, and there was a corresponding spike in delays. Another factor is the backlog of cases that grew during the pandemic and persists. Misdemeanor judicial diversion, which started in 2021, also affected time to disposition for misdemeanors. In such cases, defendants are given the time and opportunity to complete community service or other requirements for a diversion dismissal of the charges.
Extended periods of pretrial detention have adverse consequences for defendants and criminal justice resources. Filing decisions should be made in a timely manner, especially for cases involving detained defendants.
The charts below show the median number of days from referral to filing for defendants either released or detained at the time of arraignment. Detained at arraignment means that on the defendant’s first appearance in court the defendant was in custody. Some defendants in this category were released with electronic monitoring, bail, or other conditions at the arraignment hearing or after.
When the suspect is being held in custody (detained), our Office makes the decision to file or not file criminal charges in less than a day (indicated by the pink line below). For cases where the suspect is out of custody on bail or on their own recognizance (released), while the amount of time for review is longer, it is still well before the first court date on the case (typically set 6-8 weeks from the date of release on bail or own recognizance after arrest).
Extended periods of pretrial detention have adverse consequences for defendants and criminal justice resources. Cases should be disposed of in a timely manner, especially for cases involving detained defendants.
The charts below show median number of days from filing to disposition for defendants either released or detained at the time of arraignment. Detained at arraignment means that on the defendant’s first appearance in court the defendant was in custody. Some defendants in this category were released with electronic monitoring, bail, or other conditions at the arraignment hearing or after.