Starting Monday, officers from the San Antonio Police Department and Bexar County Sheriff’s Office will begin ticketing people for low-level, nonviolent offenses, such as possessing small amounts of marijuana or driving with an invalid license.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a Friday news conference that the conversation about implementing a cite-and-release program started a few years ago.
“Cite-and-release has been a long time coming. … This was not a simple task to get this off the ground,” he said.
Under the program, officers can decide to ticket someone for a low-level offense instead of making an arrest. Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said qualifying offenses include possessing a small amount of marijuana, theft of an item worth between $50 and $500, and driving with an invalid license.
A person who gets a citation can report to the Bexar County Reentry Services Center downtown between 10 and 30 days after receiving the ticket. Pretrial services and district attorney staff will look at the cited individual’s record for past violent offenses and evaluate whether that person qualifies for the cite-and-release program. If so, the person is given 60 days to fulfill any required action to avoid an arrest record, such as attending a substance abuse class or doing community service.
Representatives from the public defender’s office also will be available at the reentry center.
“Basically, we’re watching out for the rights of the people who were being cited,” said Bexar County Chief Public Defender Michael Young.
People with citations can report to the reentry center on Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They also will have access to other services provided by the re-entry center, which for the past three years has been giving previously incarcerated people help with housing, employment, and utility payments.
Gonzales emphasized that the new program is not supposed to affect police officers’ or sheriff’s deputies’ responsibility to enforce the law. Officers still have the option to make arrests for the offenses covered by the cite-and-release program, he said. And if a person is arrested, Gonzales’s office would still review the case and decide whether or not to prosecute.
“Can we help them avoid a conviction if possible? That’s the main goal of this,” he said.
If a person fails to show up for evaluation or does not complete his or her mandated service, an arrest warrant can then be filed, Gonzales explained.
“If they show up on the 61st day because they had health care issues or child care issues, or maybe they couldn’t get off of their job, we’ll work with them,” Gonzales said. “But it’s the individual that just blows it off that says, ‘I’m not interested, I don’t want to do this,’ then we exercise our prerogative and we file the case with the court.”
SAPD, Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, and the district attorney’s office collaborated to streamline the cite-and-release process. SAPD had been tinkering with its own cite-and-release program, and the sheriff’s office has run a pilot program since 2018.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said during the first year of cite and release, about 60 percent of individuals given citations did not show up to be evaluated. His department is on track to see the no-show rates tick down to 50 percent. Salazar hypothesized that people may have been confused or afraid of what going to the Bexar County Jail to review their citations meant.
“I gotta think it’s a learning curve,” he said.
Several other municipalities within Bexar County are working on creating their own citation programs to participate in cite-and-release, Gonzales said.
“We have 35-plus different law enforcement agencies in Bexar County,” he said. “Some of them are very eager to jump on board and participate, and they’re doing what they can to become partners.”
Implementing a cite-and-release program has always been one of Gonzales’s priorities, he said.
This is a decent half measure, but why doesn’t the DA just say we’re not going to prosecute possession of marijuana cases under four ounces period. The citation process implies that it’s still wrong to possess and use marijuana even in small quantities. That is wrong morally, practically, and in terms of public health, particularly considering the racist origins of the criminalization of marijuana. Continuing the criminalization of marijuana, even under the auspices of a cite and release program, is still racist. The DA should say that marijuana possession use and possession in small quantities will never be prosecuted. I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and judges, including prosecutors, drinking large quantities of alcohol, but somehow marijuana has a stigma that alcohol does not. It is rank hypocrisy.
I wonder if Ms Wong or her editor asked the DA’s Office if they put any thought into how the records of these offenses (possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana, criminal mischief, theft, theft of service — such as leaving a restaurant) would be kept and how many repetitions would result in arrests and criminal prosecutions.
Hopefully, this only applies to adults and juveniles are arrested, taken to the juvenile detention center and can only be released to their parents or legal guardians.
In the case of marijuana use, most valid studies show continued use results in higher dosages and eventual moving to stronger illegal drug use with the additional crimes of robbery and burglary to support their habits. This needs to be removed from the program and requires 100% medical treatment.
With 50 to 60% of those in the trust cases not showing up for a pretrial diversion program, it would be wise that they be required for 100% of these citations. No matter what percentage do not appear within the 30 -60 days, they should be arrested. That, also applies to those with no IDs who provide false names, addresses or telephone numbers or provide fraudulent IDs.
Only a secure record system and stringent enforcement will make this a worthwhile program.
Quite concerned about law breakers, but very little concern for victims. 60 days no excuses. Repeat offenders not included, and the harsher end of the penalty scale.
Where is the consideration for the victims of theft in these new policies.? Someone can steal up to $500 money, property, merchandise, etc., and the police have the option of just giving them a written citation. The person committing the theft can just ignore the citation and disappear? Petty thieves are going to love this. Unbelievable!
We need to give more consideration to the victims of crime. Require restitution whenever possible in the case of theft, or personal & property crimes. The emphasis should be to benefit & protect the victim, not on making it easy on the person committing the crime. “Lesser” crimes going unpunished, will lead to bigger crimes.
This is a wonderful move! The idea that marijuana is a “gateway drug” and leads to opioid is simply untrue. If one looks at studies in the states that have legalized the use of marijuana, opioid use has dropped dramatically. As well, tax revenue in those states has increased by over 340 million dollars. As well, those states prison populations have significantly dropped also saving those states millions of dollars.
Bravo, San Antonio! Texas has some of the incarceration rates in the US. This legislation could reduce incarceration in Texas.
In 2017, it cost Americans 182 billion dollars to house prisoners, and, in Texas, the first state to use private prisons, statistics show that more deaths and abuse occur in these prisons. Also, when these prisons’ populations decrease, the state is fined millions of dollars. In other words, the use of private prisons works to benefit the prisons. Finally, prisons are supposed to rehabilitate and not to abuse or make private prison companies wealthier.
I am proud to be a native San Antonio. It’s great to see SA making Texas great again!