On Saturday, Sept. 1, when House Bill 2391 takes effect, Texas police officers will be given a choice to issue a ticket instead of arresting individuals for certain class A and B misdemeanors – including
possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana. Authored by Rep.
Jerry Madden, R-Richardson – chair of the House Corrections Committee – and carried by Sen.
Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo – vice chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee – the bill is designed to ease the burden on county jails and county budgets. It would allow an officer to write a ticket in lieu of arrest for certain misdemeanor crimes committed in the same county where the individual lives. Among the new citation-eligible offenses are criminal mischief, theft, theft of service, and graffiti, where the loss of goods/services or damage done is less than $500; bringing and/or possessing "contraband in a correctional facility"; driving with a suspended license; and possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana. The
Travis Co. Sheriff's Office estimates that 7,000 people were booked into jail in 2006 for the offenses listed under the new law. TCSO spokesman
Roger Wade said most of those defendants would have qualified for a citation only, which would have saved the county about $1.2 million. Additionally, Wade said the TCSO estimates that each arrest took an officer off the street for an average of three hours per arrest.
A citation written under the new law would require the ticketed individual to appear before a magistrate for a hearing on the charged offense before being released on a personal bond – except in cases where "good cause shown" means a stint in the county lockup. Any failure to appear before the judge at the appointed time would prompt filing an arrest warrant.
The measure received near-unanimous support in the Lege. In the House, it passed 132-1 on a record vote, with only Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, voting against it; in the Senate, the bill passed 29-1, with Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, voting against. Gov. Rick Perry signed the measure into law June 15.
