Tune in to the latest podcast of NJSBA Sidebar, which features a wide-ranging discussion with Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes, who has served in the position for a decade.

When Valdes began her tenure, she became the first Latina prosecutor in the state. She manages an office that has an annual budget of roughly $20 million and a staff of nearly 200 lawyers, detectives and support personnel. As Passaic County's top law enforcer, Valdes oversees 16 municipal police departments and the police departments of William Paterson and Montclair State universities.

Valdes began working as a municipal prosecutor in Newark after law school, and has also been a state deputy attorney general and an assistant U.S. attorney in Newark. She was a featured speaker at the New Jersey State Bar Association's annual Diversity Summit earlier this summer.

Valdes sat down recently in a conference room at her Totowa office to talk about the role of community involvement in addressing bias incidents, gang activity and opioid abuse. She emphasized the value of being proactive and making connections with different community stakeholders to explain the goals of the office, before a crime or incident happens. Valdes also spoke about her path to the profession, why she's 'fabulous' and what she has learned during her work as a prosecutor.

Tune in today.