The delay surrounding a Buffalo Township homicide-by-vehicle case is a good reason why a new rule regarding serious crimes should not have been handed down by Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr.

The message emanating from the new rule is that it's OK for the district attorney's office to drag its feet on a serious case for as long as it chooses, but, effective Tuesday, there will be nothing police can do to get around the delay - no matter how strong the police feel their evidence is.

That scenario should not be in place.

It's hard to fathom why, after six months, District Attorney Timothy McCune still was not ready to render a decision on whether charges should be filed in the Buffalo Township case in question. The long delay in obtaining a decision from McCune's office caused the township's police to become increasingly frustrated and, reacting to that frustration, the police in January chose to file charges against an Allegheny County man without the DA's blessing.

The case is currently in court.

While the new rule will not result in drastic changes, since police in the county - including Buffalo Township's - have routinely sought the DA's guidance in serious matters, it will stymie police if they ever are faced with a frustrating delay like Buffalo Township experienced.

McCune might not be wrong in contending that the change will help prosecutors be sure defendants are charged with only the most appropriate crimes, which could cut down on negotiations and plea bargains later. There are people who have questioned the DA's judgment in some of the plea bargains to which his office has agreed, especially, in recent months, in the case involving the traffic death of a Mars School District coach.

But a move by the district attorney to acquire direct supervisory power over police departments - a scenario that the new rule, in effect, creates - is troubling and is not in the best interests of the public at large.

Doerr should have recognized and acknowledged this important other side of the issue, not merely kowtow to McCune's apparent agitation over having been circumvented by Buffalo Township officers.

In the Buffalo Township case, the DA's office had the power, at the magistrate level, to withdraw the charges that were filed against the Pittsburgh man, if McCune felt the charges were inappropriate or premature. That such action was not forthcoming exacerbates the question about why the DA chose not to make a decision about how to proceed in what the police felt was a reasonable time frame, considering the evidence.

The crimes to which the new rule applies include homicide, involuntary manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, aggravated assault, homicide by vehicle and homicide by vehicle while driving drunk. Effective Tuesday, police will be able to arrest a suspect if the suspect is in police sight. However, police will not be able to file criminal charges or issue an arrest warrant in serious cases without the signature of McCune or an assistant district attorney.

Government operates on a system of checks and balances. The ability of police to file charges without the DA's blessing provided a good reason for the DA's office not to foot-drag on cases police departments presented to it, as well as to maintain communication with police.

As of Tuesday, that incentive for expeditious action and communicaiton will evaporate, although McCune and his assistants presumably will not make it a policy to foot-drag. The county court should watch what transpires once the new rule becomes effective.

Up to now, the district attorney's office has not seen the need for what Doerr has handed down. Rather than request such a rule, McCune would have acted more effectively by encouraging his office to handle questions more expeditiously, and if there was a good reason for delay, that the police, through an adequate level of communication, understand why.

In the Buffalo Township case, the DA's office obviously did not strive for the degree of understanding necessary, but chose only a course of inaction without proper explanation.

McCune not being 100 percent convinced about the strength of the Buffalo Township evidence wasn't an excuse for the case to be in danger of "falling through the cracks." Determining innocence or guilt is what trials and juries are all about.

This teaming-up by McCune and Doerr against the best interests of police throughout the county is not in victims' best interests either. Doerr still has time to change his mind.

- J.R.K.