Running unopposed, Summer Stephan will continue serving as San Diego’s district attorney. Having served since 2016, she plans to continue her career with another four-year term, focusing extensively on sex crimes and human trafficking, as she had done previously. By reflecting on her time in office, we can use them to predict what her future steps might be and point to needed improvements. 

A district attorney has quite a lot of power and can have large impacts on how the law is carried out. Their job is to handle the prosecution of criminal violations and court operations (both municipal and superior) as well as conduct general administrative services, like providing budgets for certain programs. The county DA can also provide assistance in areas such as investigations, family/victim support systems, and handling current topics regarding criminal law, such as domestic abuse, violent crime, trafficking, sex crimes, and much more. 

Throughout her previous four-year term, we saw Stephan fulfill the task of a district attorney quite effectively. In looking back on her accomplishments, she is most well known for developing San Diego’s first Sex Crimes and Human Trafficking Divison, called the Special Victims Unit, in order to help victims cope with the aftermaths of their attacks. This unit has since gone on to help stop the abuse and exploitation of young women and continues to do so. Her administration has also taken up examining more than 2000 untested rape kits ranging from 1990 to the present in order to provide closure for many women. 735 kits ended up testing for DNA other than the victim’s, which has helped reopen and solve several old cases. I find this initiative to be one of the most impactful that she has done, as it shows the victims of these horrid crimes that someone cares enough to take action and look back on these unsolved cases. 

Further, human trafficking, a problem for which San Diego was nationally ranked 13th worst region with around 8,000 victims per year, Stephens created the Anti-Human Trafficking Training Program for the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in partnership with the CEO of San Diego Harbor Police Foundation, Jeff Wohler. This program, launched in 2021, teaches workers in the hospitality industry the common signs for spotting human trafficking and how to prevent it, as tourists are among the most common victims of human trafficking. This was no doubt a move in the right direction for targeting one of the main sources of trafficking. In addition, she draws even more attention to the problem of trafficking by creating a Human Trafficking Awareness Month in schools. Helping students become more aware of dangerous indications of human trafficking has become one of Stephan’s main focuses, having obtained a three-year grant in order to provide funds for this curriculum and training. 

To me, this is another one of the most influential initiatives she took during her time as District Attorney. Targeting the very nuances of human trafficking, she has realized that in order to lower numbers and prevent it within our county, she must first identify the sources where it happens most (school systems, tourism, etc.) and educate those around these communities to notice trafficking so that we can stop it from happening. 

She has also implemented committees centered around race equity and has herself prosecuted multiple cases of crimes against people of color. 

Among some of her more notable programs, Stephan has opened a Family Justice Center in North County to address the higher number of domestically charged homicides in the region. She also launched a juvenile diversion program that has helped countless kids stay out of jail, and a “San Diego Opioid Project” that is working on reducing deaths due to drug overdoses. 

I hope that she may able to continue her work in all these areas, as well as improve on certain areas that have become prevalent in our society recently, such as the uptake of fentanyl overdoses, the seemingly exponential increase of homelessness in the greater San Diego area, and the corruption and unjust practices within our police system. Stephan can also work on providing statistics for the programs she has implemented and how they have helped our community in order to get a better understanding of the effectiveness of those initiatives. 

Her work in human trafficking and sex crimes, however, seems to have already taken a large step in the correct direction and I hope she may continue to improve to make San Diego a better, safer place for its residents in the future.

I look forward to the work she will continue to do in her next term.