Williams is also seeking the state Supreme Court's backing to reorganize the Philadelphia courts in tandem, also along neighborhood lines.
Justice Seamus McCaffery, a leader in a high court push to reform city courts, has already endorsed the plan. Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said that the idea looked promising, but that he wanted to study it further.
Under Williams' plan, the courts would set aside different floors of the Criminal Justice Center, the massive downtown courthouse, to hear cases from the six neighborhood zones.
Most significant, the courts would stop scheduling hundreds of preliminary hearings weekly in the roll-call rooms at six neighborhood police districts. The cases would instead take place at the 14-story courthouse.
"It's a fundamental, system-wide change," Williams said in an interview.
Charles A. Cunningham, a top official of the Defender Association, which represents a majority of the defendants in the criminal courts, said the office did not oppose the plan.
In proposing the changes, Williams is embracing a "vertical" model used by prosecutors in New York, Washington, and some other jurisdictions.
For decades in Philadelphia, as in most big cities, the District Attorney's Office has been organized along "horizontal" lines, with some prosecutors handling cases at one stage before turning them over to new ones as the prosecutions advance.
Williams said the new approach would require a "cultural change" for prosecutors, judges, and others, but would pay off with less witness intimidation, a closer prosecutorial connection with neighborhood groups - and, ultimately, more convictions.
Crucially, it would make it easier for police to testify at court hearings. Now, they are often scheduled in multiple courtrooms around the city at the same time.
