City Room™ - News In Brief - Cook County State's Attorney Reopening Neighborhood Offices

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Cook County State's Attorney Reopening Neighborhood Offices
Produced by Rob Wildeboer on Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Anita Alvarez at the Community Justice Center opening in May. (Photo by B. András)

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is making good on one of the major campaign promises she made.

The theme that repeatedly came up during last year's race for state's attorney was the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. Then candidate Alvarez said small state's attorney's offices in neighborhoods were key to restoring that relationship. Today, she used a giant pair of scissors to open the second such office on Chicago's south side. The first office opened up on the city's north side a few months ago and it's run by Joy Repella. She says people now have a convenient place where they can get legal questions answered, like one resident who got a strange check in the mail.

REPELLA: That particular consumer, that victim didn't become a victim of identity theft or some other crime. So sometimes people just walk into our offices with questions or an issue about a car dealership or they have problems either with their landlord or being a tenant and we try to work through those issues as well.

Five similar offices existed until 2007 when former State's Attorney Dick Devine closed them because of budget problems.

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