The city soon will subscribe

to nearly five megawatts of electricity generated by the Orlando Utilities Commission’s newly built solar plant. The east Orange County site will be dedicated today.

Orlando Police Officer Denise Perez could have hauled a 14-year-old boy off to jail after he was caught trying to steal video games and cosmetics from a Walmart in February.

The teenager didn’t have a record, and he confessed to his crime.

The teen qualified for civil citation, the Juvenile Assessment Center told Perez.

The juvenile civil citation allowed the boy to avoid a petty theft on his record.

Orange County has seen its juvenile arrests decline as more small children and teens are issued civil citations, sparing them from having often permanent criminal records.

First-time misdemeanor arrests for youths who qualified for civil citations dropped from 1,666 in the 2014-15 fiscal year to 817 in the most recent 2016-17 fiscal year in Orange and Osceola counties, according to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Law enforcement and court officials, along with the League of Women Voters of Orange County, touted the numbers at a news conference Wednesday.

Orange County led the state in the number of juvenile arrests made in three of the past four years, beating much more populous counties. By comparison, Miami-Dade County arrested 47 juveniles in the last fiscal year.

But some, including Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings and Orlando Police Chief John Mina, cautioned against comparing numbers with other counties that may use different criteria. The citations are not applicable for felonies or crimes involving gangs or weapons in Orange and Osceola counties.

“What may be right for them we don’t believe is right for this community,” Mina said.

Civil citations are an alternative for “common youth misbehavior” that research shows: lowers the chances of recidivism; prevents the loss of future opportunities such as scholarships and jobs; and saves taxpayers the costs associated with arrests, said Dewey Caruthers, president of the nonprofit Caruthers Institute.

Minors who receive citations are less likely to enter the judicial system later. Their recidivism rate is 5 percent, according to the department. By comparison, the recidivism rate for an offender who enters the system is about 9 percent.

Chief Judge Frederick Lauten called for a Feb. 15 summit to get all law enforcement agencies in the same room to discuss best practices and improvements.

“It’s always beneficial to have all of the stakeholders in the room to say: ‘What about this program? Why isn’t this