Flowers Case Shows How AGs Are Stepping Into The Spotlight

“‘It is an increasing trend because of the increase in transparency on police misconduct, which is increasing public cynicism,’ according to James Tierney, a lecturer and director of the attorney general clinic at Harvard who served for 10 years as Maine’s attorney general starting in 1981.

But when an attorney general’s office takes over a case, it doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on the local prosecutor, he said. Police officers often serve as witnesses in district attorneys’ cases. Attorneys general don’t need to maintain close working relationships with police officers, and, as a result, may seem more impartial, according to Tierney.
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’This isn’t about being a good district attorney or a bad one,’ he said. ‘[A referral] lets us have someone else who has a little distance look at this.’
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But Tierney insists that while there may be an uptick in attorneys general getting involved in police-involved prosecutions, ‘it’s been this way forever.’”

Cara Bayles, “Flowers Case Shows How AGs Are Stepping Into The Spotlight,” Law360, September 13, 2020.