In order to save law enforcement resources, keeping low-level offenders out of jail was a suggestion made by law enforcement reform advocates. The Houston Police Department fulfills this request along with the rest of the departments in Harris County with their cite-and-release program. 

Officers still provide people with citations which give the time and date they have to attend the court (without exceptions) rather than hauling them to #jail. By the report of Right2Justice, 9% of HPD arrests from March 2014 to March 2020 would be eligible for cite-and-release. This figures out to be 29,000 police encounters, half of them involving black people.

The program was set up by Harris County court-at-law judges, and it is followed by Harris County Sheriff’s Office and other local departments. Even low level offenders will still be punished for their crimes, that is the reason they are given the citations. But by not immediately hauling them to jail, we reduce jail crowding and give some of these people a chance to turn things around immediately. In turn, this frees up our officers to continue doing their job of keeping our streets and our city safe.

This should be counted as a victory in police reform. State law has allowed for this type of practice since 2007, though it was not a policy for the city department for several years afterwards. It makes sense that we should explore alternatives to traditional practices, because our population is growing and law enforcement needs to have a way to streamline their duties so that they can continue to perform their essential job functions.

Overall, this is a great initiative to minimize jail overrun and keep the law enforcement resources for more serious issues.