(Beaver Falls, Pa.) Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier joined Eddy Crow on Teleforum Thursday morning at 10 AM to announce to the people of Beaver County that he is indeed going to run for a third term as District Attorney of Beaver County.
Lozier, a Republican, first ran in 2015 as an outsider who wasn’t invested in the “Beaver County way” and felt he could make the substantial changes needed to improve access to unbiased justice for the citizens of Beaver County.
Lozier said in a release that he used his management experience from the
Army, mental health background from college, and experience as a trial attorney in over 20 counties to reform the Office of the District Attorney. He started by changing the way prosecutors prepared for their Preliminary Hearings insuring that they had all of the records and resources they needed beforehand to better evaluate cases with the goal of making realistic pleas earlier in the criminal process. Working with the help of experts his office introduced mental health and drug treatment solutions into the pleas to better address the underlying causes of criminal behavior and reduce recidivism. Lozier went on to say that he hired attorneys from across Pennsylvania who could bring new ideas and new solutions and together, they removed politics from prosecution and implemented tools to insure consistent results across similar cases. Lozier feels that the Beaver County citizens deserve efficient, timely and predictable “justice” and under him he feels his office did the best they could to meet that demand.
During his first two terms Lozier restructured the Anti-Drug Task Force to collaborate with state and federal agencies and rebuilt the Emergency Services Unit (Beaver County SWAT) to meet national standards. Lozier teamed up with law
enforcement and school nurses to put Narcan in every police car and school which he says is saving hundreds of lives in the process. Lozier has worked with the Drug Abuse Coalition and partners across the Beaver County to improve the availability
of drug and mental health treatment in the community and in the jail with better treatment as part of offenders sentences and could offer long-term pathways to individuals so they could rebuild their lives and prevent future crimes. Lozier worked with municipal and law enforcement partners to put Prescription Drug Take Back Boxes in over 20 police stations removing over 15,000 pounds of pills from the black market.
Lozier is touting his record as DA and says that he has done what he said he would do during his time in office. In 2019, he asked Beaver County voters to stick with me for another four-years and the voters stood behind him electing him to a second term.
Right after his second term start the world came to a screeching halt with COVID-19 but Lozier said that while 66 other county courts in the state closed their doors and shut down the courts his didn’t. He worked with the President Judge Rick Mancini
and the County Commissioners to maintain a daily court schedule while keeping officers, victims, witnesses, defendants and staff safe. While other counties were dismissing thousands of criminal cases because their courts were closed or backlogged, Beaver County stayed the course under Lozier’s watch. Masks were worn during hearings, court proceedings on were held on Zoom, and there was in-person jury trials under Covid-19 protocols.
Putting Covid-19, aside Lozier feels his office accomplished a lot over the past four years including offering top notch training for police and attorneys. His office worked to provide police departments with body-worn cameras to improve both officer safety and officer accountability and he sponsored the new License Plate Reading Cameras throughout the county. Lozier feels that these tools dramatically accelerated investigations of major crimes and improved the solve-rate for every category of crime
across the County. He also feels that his office provided the detective bureau with the most advanced forensic technology available to better serve the many police departments that his office supports. In 2022 Lozier created the Special Victims Unit bringing together highly qualified prosecutors and detectives to improve the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence and sex assault cases. He re-structed the prosecution of Juvenile cases to address the increasing number of
violent juvenile offenders regularly working with the Beaver County Humane Society and its Animal Control Officers to secure animal safety and support the rescue of animals from the most horrid conditions.
In 2021 and 2022 Lozier worked to secure over $3,000,000 in police technology grants that will come to fruition in 2023 and 2024. These federal earmarks and state grants will bring DNA technology to Beaver County, allow drug samples to be tested in Beaver County the day they are seized, put computers in police cars, and interconnect police departments through the same shared Police Record Management System. Throughout last year Lozier has worked hard to lay the ground work for regionalizing many of the smaller police departments into larger, full time, fully supported
departments.
Working with my prosecutors, the courts, the Police Chiefs, and behavioral health professionals, Lozier says he will continue to provide the best “justice” he can, he will keep Beaver County citizens safe, and ensure that police officers can go home
to their families at the ends of their shifts.
Lozier finished the release by saying that ” I ask the voters of Beaver County to allow me to continue this record of tough prosecution, efficient management of public resources, and implementation of the most modern technology available in the court room, in the forensic lab, and on the streets. Again, I humbly ask for your support.”
At this point there has been no other candidates that have announced that they will be attempting to run against Lozier.