HPD to join cite-and-release program

Policy will permit officers to issue citations for certain misdemeanors instead of jail time

The Houston Police Department plans to join Harris County’s cite-and-release program, fulfilling advocates’ long-running request to implement a policy they say keeps low-level offenders out of jail and saves law enforcement resources for more serious threats.

In a presentation to the city council’s Public Safety Committee, Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge on Thursday laid out the program HPD will use for a set of six misdemeanors offenses. The strategy mirrors that already used by the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office and other local departments, using a program set up by Harris County court-at-law judges.

In those cases, officers now would be required to give people a citation with the time and date they must appear in court, instead of hauling them to jail, unless certain exceptions apply. Like the sheriff’s office, HPD officers who use their discretion to disqualify an accused offender from the program would have to get supervisor approval and list the reason in their report.

Chief Art Acevedo said HPD will implement the program “imminently,” once he receives the final policy from the Turner administration.

Some advocates who have lobbied for the measure for months — and in some cases years — lauded the plan as a victory for the recent movement protesting over-policing and brutality. State law first allowed such programs in 2007, and Turner’s transition team endorsed the idea in a March 2016 report.

“The policy isn’t perfect, but at the end of the day, it’s the first real step we’ve seen toward changing policing in Houston,” said Sarah Labowitz of ACLU Texas. The group is part of the Right2Justice Coalition, which released a July report recommending a slew of reforms, including cite and release.

Darrell Jordan, a Harris County court-at-law judge who helped design the cite-and-release program,