“I knew that I would spend the rest of my life trying to make sure that that look of fear, terror, and indignity leaves somebody’s eyes.” This is the promise District Attorney Summer Stephan made to herself when she started her career as a prosecutor.
Since 2018 Stephan has been using her experience and influence as San Diego County’s District Attorney (DA) to combat the rise in fentanyl deaths, human trafficking, and homelessness in California’s second-largest city.
Over the past few months, Stephan has been visiting Rotary clubs across San Diego discussing her plans to provide San Diegans with equal and
fair justice. Recently, she visited the Rotary Club of Chula Vista-Eastlake to talk about her accomplishments and future initiatives. Her dedication to keeping the San Diego community safe stems from reading about the abuse of little girls in Sumatra at the age of 12. Stephan has been pursuing her promise to erase the feelings of fear and indignity from the community through her criminal justice programs.
fair justice. Recently, she visited the Rotary Club of Chula Vista-Eastlake to talk about her accomplishments and future initiatives. Her dedication to keeping the San Diego community safe stems from reading about the abuse of little girls in Sumatra at the age of 12. Stephan has been pursuing her promise to erase the feelings of fear and indignity from the community through her criminal justice programs. Her latest project, a family justice center called One Safe Place, gives victims of violence a safe place to receive acute crisis care, counseling and therapy, connections to a safe shelter and housing, and other essential services–all under one roof. It is a passion project for Stephan, who dreamed of creating a center just like this since becoming district attorney. One Safe Place opened in July 2022 in San Marcos with the goal of breaking the cycle of abuse and homelessness for female and child survivors. Since its opening, the center has helped 2,239 victims and over 200 children.
Stephan is committed to providing additional centers for abuse victims elsewhere in the county. With support from District 1 County Supervisor Nora Vargas, the two trailblazing politicians plan to open a second One Safe Place in Chula Vista. Designs for the center are underway, and a building contract for the project is nearly complete.
Stephan’s game-changing criminal prevention programs don’t stop at family justice centers. Stephan and her team have been hard at work fighting to curb the rise in fentanyl deaths, human trafficking, and homelessness in San Diego. Fentanyl has become the number one cause of death for people aged 18 to 45 years old. Since 2019, the number of fentanyl-related deaths has steadily doubled from 152 deaths to 462 deaths to 814 deaths. The DA plans to tackle this epidemic head-on by collaborating with parents of fentanyl overdose victims to write letters and send them to large drug companies. Stephan hopes that the companies will be persuaded to create a commercial that raises awareness about the devastating effects of fentanyl.
The DA has also joined forces with the United States Attorney and the Drug Enforcement Agency to form team FAST and homicide team 10 to apprehend drug suppliers. She has also advocated for drug awareness campaigns and brought back drug education in San Diego public schools.
The DA and her team have also been combating the rise in human trafficking. Stephan recently spearheaded a human trafficking operation with law enforcement that captured 57 bad actors and saved eight young girls. In response to the rise in homelessness, Stephan intends to make mental healthcare treatment accessible for homeless people in need.
Rotary District 5340 has a dedicated Anti-Human Trafficking task force that launched a series of initiatives designed to increase the awareness of San Diego County's human sex trafficking scourge and generate measures to help prevent individuals–primarily young people–from becoming victims. Efforts include an educational workshop series to understand the elements of human sex trafficking in San Diego County and what residents can do to keep their eyes and ears open to combat it.
The district attorney sets an example of servant leadership, Rotary leaders say. Stephan’s programs and initiatives demonstrate her values of ethical prosecution, prevention of harm, protection of victims, and partnerships with the community.
“We are setting a standard in modern-day prosecution, innovation in how we treat our community, and how we partner with our community,” Stephan said.