SLO County DA Dan Dow elected president of state prosecutors association
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- Dan Dow elected president of California District Attorney’s Association in 2025
- Dow aims to strengthen victim rights statewide through training and legislation
- Presidency will focus on ensuring plea changes always consider victim notification
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow was elected to be president of the California District Attorneys Association earlier this month.
Dow told The Tribune the association is a professional organization for California prosecutors that has the primary goal of enhancing training and professionalism in District Attorney’s Offices throughout the state. It also introduces or lobbies for legislation in Sacramento, he said.
Dow was sworn into his position as president on Aug. 1 after serving on the board from 2018-21 and on the executive board since 2022. Most recently, he served as the vice president, he said.
“It’s a pretty significant honor,” Dow said, adding that he’s looked up to the prosecutors who have held the same position. Presidential terms in the association are one year, he said.
In his position, Dow will emphasize the theme “victims always.”
“I chose the word ‘victims always’ because they’re not necessarily more important than the offender going through the process, but they should always be considered, always be heard,” Dow said. “They should always be treated with dignity and respect.”
He said the theme was inspired by a case where his office did not notify a victim that a defendant changed their plea, causing the victim to not exercise her right to be heard in court.
“To me, that was a really strong wake-up call to say, unintentionally, a victim’s rights could not be fully afforded to them if we’re not very, very careful to ensure that every time a plea changes, that before we let that go forward in court we’re calling the victim,” he said.
Victims have the right to be heard in criminal proceedings at every step of the process under Marsy’s Law, which was enshrined in the California Constitution in 2008. Dow said victims not being notified of plea changes can happen unintentionally because of high case loads and prosecutors wanting to secure a plea as soon as the defendant is ready.
Dow said making victims’ rights a priority is imperative to making a cultural change in prosecutors’ offices. His hope is that every District Attorney Office in the state, as well as judges, have victims in mind when defendants chose to change their plea. He hopes to make this change through training and potentially introducing legislation, he said.
When asked about his future ambitions, Dow said he hopes to continue serving San Luis Obispo County.
“I love this job. I’m committed to this job and I’m hoping to retire from this job a long time from now,” Dow said. “My plan is to stay here and continue to work hard at hopefully making some of these changes that I talked about with victims’ rights.”
He also said he hopes to see a shift by voters on criminal justice policy to the center, noting that Prop. 36 being voted in is a good sign.
Dow said seeking truth — not convictions — is what he loves about his job, citing a quote by former U.S. Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson in 1941: “Even though the government shall lose a case, it has won the case if justice has been done.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 2:31 PM.
