Johnson County needs a DA who is transparent with the public. That’s not Steve Howe | Opinion
Homicide, robbery, property damage and sexual assault are just a few of the common charging categories that any local district attorney’s office handles on a daily basis. The number of cases referred, filed, not filed, charged and not charged, as well as outcomes of jury trials and non-trial cases, reflect the effectiveness of the district attorney’s office. Transparency and an open government promote civic engagement, enable citizens’ oversight of their tax dollars at work and form the cornerstone of our democracy. This data should be readily accessible to the public.
In my quest to find some of this information for Johnson County, I went searching on District Attorney Steve Howe’s website for answers. Unlike Howe’s counterparts in neighboring Kansas counties, none of the data I was looking for was available. As I did on many other occasions with other governmental entities, I submitted Kansas Open Records Act requests. This act gives ordinary people the power to attain information that the public has a right to know. Most governmental entities acknowledge the request almost immediately and return the requested information within two weeks. Unfortunately, Howe apparently does not feel a need to comply with these requests.
On Sept. 12, I submitted three KORA requests: 1) jury trial statistics for 2022 and 2023, 2) a list of the jury trials and case numbers that were assigned to Howe for the last five years, and 3) the number of sexual assault reports received, filed and convictions from Jan. 1, 2023, to present. I even provided a list of the applicable statutes to make it easier to retrieve the data.
Consistent with my previous experiences with Howe, the response to these KORA requests has been no response — crickets. I have followed up with emails, phone calls and even a personal visit to the DA’s office. No one can tell me who is working on the requests nor when I might receive a response. The lack of transparency has been appalling, but not surprising based on previous interactions.
District attorneys across the nation have this information on their websites via data dashboards. Not Steve Howe. Not only is there no data dashboard — there isn’t even an annual report on the site that might house some of this data. Perhaps he expects us to take his word for it. But for that he would have to make an effort to share the information. And then if he did, how can we trust the man who had to be reminded to tell the truth by the Kansas Judicial Branch’s Office of the Disciplinary Administrator?
We have the right to know if the justice system is working in the best interest of the public. This leaves the public with the lingering question: Why would Steve Howe withhold this information? Here is a hint: Howe has tried only six jury trials in 16 years. We can assume the rest of his statistics are just as appalling.
For 16 years, Johnson County has been underserved. It is well beyond time we have a DA who is responsive to the people, not afraid of scrutiny and willingly tells the truth. It’s time to show Steve Howe the door and elect Vanessa Riebli as our next Johnson County District Attorney.