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District residents always ask for more foot-patrol cops, as if they can’t believe that officers are on the job unless they pass them on the street. The same attitude seems to apply toward prosecutors. U.S. Attorney Roscoe Howard has relaxed the requirement, set by his predecessor Wilma Lewis, that community prosecutors must attend at least one public meeting a month—and the public has begun to feel snubbed. Prosecutors “don’t come around as much as they used to,” a Trinidad resident complained at a public-safety meeting last week. Hillcrest resident Kathy Chamberlain says prosecutors “close an information gap” about crime and punishment that police can’t fill. But prosecutors apparently resented fielding complaints about potholes and uncollected trash. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Channing Phillips says some felt they were “hired to be litigators, not social workers.” —Annys Shin