With the start of a new year comes the beginning of a new era in the Dallas County Attorney’s Office, as the post will now be held by Chuck Sinnard.

Sinnard has been an Assistant County Attorney since 2000, having joined right out of Drake Law School. In the ensuing 18-plus years, he has prosecuted a wide variety of crimes, ranging from traffic tickets to first-degree murder. That entire time, he worked under outgoing Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter, who earned the mantle in 1998. However, Sinnard had long held aspirations for the head job, and decided to throw his hat into the ring in the recent general election. He ran as a Republican against the Democratic Reisetter, and took 52% of the votes cast to win the office.

Now that he’s County Attorney, Sinnard says an area of particular interest for him is how to both utilize and combat the current advances in technology. “Internet and technology has really changed the face of what crime is, and how you prosecute it. Additionally, it’s I think the exception now, versus the rule, where there wouldn’t be some sort of recording, whether it be from somebody’s cell phone or a surveillance camera. And so people have come to expect that. Being able to recognize those areas where technology can be used for either good or bad, and then using that in a criminal prosecution effectively, I think is something that certainly is going to draw our attention in the years to come.”

As for Reisetter, though he is no longer Dallas County Attorney, he has agreed to stay on under Sinnard as an Assistant County Attorney for the immediate future.