Long Beach is trying to curb small-time crime around Belmont Shore with a specially assigned prosecutor.

As part of a new program, Councilwoman Suzie Price’s office is providing funding for the prosecutor to focus part-time on misdemeanor crime specifically in the Belmont Shore and Belmont Pier neighborhoods. She announced the project this week.

The prosecutor will follow certain criminal cases from start to finish and try to connect chronic offenders with any relevant social services like mental health treatment and substance abuse assistance, according to Price, who represents Long Beach’s third council district.

The prosecutor can also help identify crime trends and work with neighbors and police officers in the community to try to tamp down problems.

“The third district is a great place to live and we want to make sure no resident is expressing a reasonable fear to walk at night, let their kids ride their bikes, or walk in our beach and business corridors, or risk losing their secured property,” Price said. “Together we will have a major impact on reducing quality of life related crimes and stopping repeat offenders in our community. This partnership starts now.”

Price said she and City Prosecutor Doug Haubert have been working for several months to get the project started.

In the past, the city had other neighborhood prosecutors assigned to specific areas, but the programs evaporated after budget cuts in 2009, according to Haubert’s office.

The city brought back the program for Downtown Long Beach in 2014 with grant funding from the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, but this is the first time a council member has directly funded such a project, according to Haubert.

The city prosecutor’s office handles all of Long Beach’s misdemeanor cases, which include such violations as petty theft, vandalism, drug possession, loitering and drinking in public.

“Dedicating resources to a small area will allow us to accomplish at least two important things,” Haubert said. First, we will be more aggressive in offering social services to people who appear to need them. Second, we will work to ensure appropriate prosecution of those people who refuse services and continue to commit crimes.”

Haubert said projects like this allow his office to be more effective on a limited budget by responding to neighborhoods’ unique crime trends.

“I believe in community prosecution and the so-called ‘broken window theory,'” he said. “I’ve seen a focused approach to solving community problems work before, and I think it will work in this pilot program.”