Keep officers on the street. Every arrest takes at least one officer off the street for 3-4 hours.  Why do some police departments pressure the city for more officers yet choose to sacrifice patrol time to book people into jail who do not need to be there?  The citation option keeps officers on the street addressing real crime.  It’s like getting lots of new officers at no extra cost to taxpayers, or the savings can be used for much-needed city infrastructure and social services.

Improve public safety. In many Texas jails, arrestees are being screened by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regardless of the seriousness of the offense, resulting in a substantial increase in detainees.  In response, the immigrant community is less willing to reach out to local police when they are victims or witnesses of crime, because they fear any interaction with law enforcement could result in deportation.  This turns whole neighborhoods into easy targets for predators and undermines public safety for all residents.  When police implement the citation option, police can begin to rebuild trust in the immigrant community and increase the reporting of serious crime and domestic violence, making us all safer.

Reduce racial profiling.  Although all three groups of people use illegal drugs at the same rate, in Texas a person with black skin is more likely to be incarcerated than a person with white skin for the same drug crime.  Accurate numbers for people with brown skin are not available.  If police would stop choosing to incarcerate people when they could use a citation, we can start turning the appalling disparity around by taking concrete steps to improve racial justice.

Give taxpayers relief. While police are arresting and booking people in jail who they could have issued a citation, jail overcrowding is one of every county’s biggest and most expensive problems.  If our police agencies do not preserve jail for people who commit serious crimes, taxpayers will continue to be treated like a bottomless ATM machine.

The Travis County Sheriff, Austin Police, Dallas Police and many others use the citation option … Does your law enforcement agency prioritize its resources?