Ticketing instead of jail OK’d
Mayor Sylvester Turner signed an executive order Monday authorizing a new cite-and-release program for the Houston Police Department, aiming to let people accused of certain misdemeanors off witha ticket instead of a trip to jail.
Turner and Chief Art Acevedo also promised to release monthly updates on its implementation, ensuring the public can review how the policy is applied. The order takes effect 6 a.m. today.
“The program gives them an opportunity to make changes in their lives and face responsibility for their actions without having the stain of an arrest, or serving jail time, on their record,” Turner said of accused offenders.
The policy, which HPD unveiled at a council committee meeting earlier this month, allows officers to give a ticket instead of arresting people accused of seven misdemeanors: possession of less than 4 ounces of a controlled substance; criminal mischief of between $100 and $750 in damage; graffiti result-
ing in $100 to $2,500 damage; theft of between $100 and $750; theft of service worth between $100 and $750; bringing contraband into a correctional facility; and driving with an invalid license.
Those offenses accounted for roughly 3,000 arrests in Houston last year, according to HPD.
Turner said the department’s policy toward Class C misdemeanors, some of which carry the possibility of arrest, would be upgraded to match the cite-and-release program. Police executives said violent crimes in that category, such as assault, would remain arrests.
The accused would receive a citation telling them when and where to appear in court under a cite-and-release program created by Harris County’s court-at-law judges, who have said the city could have joined months ago. The policy has buy-in from HPD executives, the Houston Police Officers’ Union and some advocates, who have called it an imperfect step in the right direction.
However, the city’s policy allows for exceptions that some argue are too expansive. The exceptions include if an alleged offender cannot provide a government ID, if there is reason to believe the alleged offender will not appear in court, and if “an officer believes that offering Cite And Release toan otherwise qualified suspect is not the best course of action.”
In those cases, the officer must get supervisor approval and document the name of that supervisor in his or her offense report.
Those exceptions have given pause to criminal justice advocates.
The Right2Justice Coalition, which includes prominent local justice organizations and had drafted a model cite-and-release ordinance this summer, wrote an open letter to the mayor last week asking him to strengthen the policy. It said the policy leaves officers with too much discretion and carves out too many exceptions. It is not legally binding and does not include all citation-eligible offenses under state law, the letter said.