Matt Wells BBC Correspondent in New York

As Home Secretary David Blunkett urges senior police officers and prosecutors to adopt a higher profile, the BBC's Matt Wells reports from New York where their American counterparts are already minor celebrities

Anyone who has spent time in an English Magistrates' Court knows how anonymous and low-key the Crown Prosecution Service can be.

The unkind stereotype is of a nervous and poorly briefed lawyer, delivering an uninspiring case on behalf of the public. Only court reporters and staff ever remember their names.

New York: the home of zero tolerance policing

Contrast this with America, where every single county in the country has a district attorney with a large staff who champions the public interest in the most high-profile and imaginative way they can.

The truth is that they have to as their survival in the post depends on it as they have to seek re-election.

British home secretaries have often appropriated ideas from the more experimental criminal justice system over the Atlantic.

In the mid 1990s, Michael Howard clashed with the then shadow Home Secretary, Jack Straw, over who was most keen on the so-called broken windows or zero-tolerance strategy, the policy which has been credited with rescuing New York from its oppressive 1980s crime wave.

So now David Blunkett is flying a kite and introducing the idea of district attorneys (DAs) for England and Wales.

Locally accountable

America is very keen on powerful local government, on the simple principle that if local public servants are locally accountable then the people must be getting what they want or at least voted for.

But the reality is a little more subtle than that.

New York's two most high-profile DAs are Robert Morgenthau, who represents the interests of Manhattan, and Charles Hynes, who represents Kings County, which in practical terms means the vast borough of Brooklyn.

Morgenthau is in his mid-80s and has been in the job for 27 years.

DAs need to be sensitive to the crime issues which most effect the people who vote for them, so his current obsession is with the fat cats of corporate crime, still the biggest story on Wall Street apart from looming recession.

Problems inevitably arise when a DA needs to get results and clashes with the jurisdiction or interests of another senior law official in America's vast public bureaucracy.

One day the prosecutor is pilloried in the press for seeking the death penalty, the next day for making a deal to let a murderer escape the needle Dan Alsobrooks, President of the National District Attorneys Association

The interests of one county do not always coincide with the best interests of the city or the state.

If they aren't careful, egotistical battles can break out which are definitely not in the public interest.

Mr Hynes who is in his fourth term of office is keen to stress his Brooklyn roots on his internet homepage.

He is known for coming up with a series of eye-catching initiatives, such as compulsory reform school for men caught with prostitutes, or the establishment of a truancy patrol centre, where kids found on the streets are routinely rounded up for their ashamed parents to collect.

High media profile

Critics contend that with re-election constantly on their minds, the self-promoting DA is liable to come up with a series of gimmicky programmes that have more to do with a high media profile, than imaginative criminal policy.

But there's no denying the dynamism and accountability that DAs provide any community.

The president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan Alsobrooks, is aware of the perils of a job where popularity and derision come in equal measures.

"One day the prosecutor is pilloried in the press for seeking the death penalty, the next day for making a deal to let a murderer escape the needle.

"'Prosecutor Does Great Job, Protects the Community' doesn't sell many newspapers."