Work as cop molded view of prosecutor key to US crime review
WASHINGTON (AP) – A longtime prosecutor who played a key role in writing the Justice Department’s new policy encouraging harsher punishments for criminals is now turning to fighting violence in cities.
Steve Cook says his hardline views on criminal justice were formed as a police officer in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1980s.
He helped write Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ memo urging the nation’s prosecutors to charge suspects with the most serious offenses possible, a move assailed by critics as a return to failed policies of the drug war.
Cook is now overseeing a task force developing policies on hate crimes, marijuana and the ways law enforcement seizes cash and property from suspects.
Critics are worried about what his ascendance could mean for the future of changes to the criminal justice system.
