[420 Girl]

Tx - Being caught with a bag of marijuana in Bexar County could no longer mean an automatic trip to jail.

Stealing a few beers or driving without a valid license also wouldn't necessarily get you arrested.

Those are among non-violent misdemeanor offenses that the Bexar County sheriff wants to start ticketing people for, instead of arresting and taking them to jail. It's a proposal aimed at relieving occasional overcrowding issues at the Bexar County Jail and freeing up more time for deputies patrolling the streets.

Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said the proposal isn't anything new. The state Legislature unanimously passed a law in 2007 that gave law enforcement the discretion to issue tickets for certain minor offenses.

Ortiz said hopes to adopt the law now that new technology is available to the Sheriff's Office. Earlier this month, the agency purchased 15 mobile identification units to test, he said. The units allow deputies to confirm identities by scanning thumbprints and matching them to jail records. If the devices work properly, the sheriff said he would begin enforcing the law.

But not everyone is supportive of the sheriff's proposal, or the cite-and-release law. “I am against cite and release for a variety of reasons,” Police Chief William McManus said in a prepared statement. “Cite and release is contrary to the Broken Windows Theory. The issuance of a citation does not remove the offender from the environment in which the crime was committed. It leaves the offender at large increasing the potential for future crime to be committed.”

Cliff Herberg, first assistant district attorney for Bexar County, said a major concern District Attorney Susan Reed has with the law is that the cited person could give a false identity and officers could end up releasing an individual wanted for a more serious offense.

“The general public would say that's outrageous,” Herberg said. “People expect those people to be arrested.”

Ortiz defended his proposal, saying the new mobile identification units will tell deputies if a suspect is a fugitive. After thumbprints are scanned at the top of the hand-held device, the $3,200 unit will display a person's picture on a small color monitor and list a criminal history.

The sheriff also said the cite-and-release proposal still gives deputies the option to make an arrest, which is currently required for Class B misdemeanors.

Herberg said the district attorney would be “glad to revisit the issue if they can confirm a person's identity” during the ticketing process.

Ortiz said because about 80 percent of inmates booked into Bexar County Jail are arrests that San Antonio police officers make, the sheriff hopes McManus will also follow the cite-and-release law.

State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, said he's glad Ortiz wants to adopt the law and is not discouraged that few agencies follow it.

“We put it out there so it was up to the local community to (do) what they wanted to do,” he said. “So it's a totally local option.”

Other agencies enforcing the law include Hays, Dallas and Travis counties, as well as the city of Austin, said Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman Roger Wade.

“It's not a matter of being soft on crime,” Wade said. “It's a matter of being smart about enforcing the law.”

He said the program is working well in the county because it cuts down on the amount of time officers spend taking suspects to jail and writing arrest reports.

The law — and Ortiz's proposal — also can be applied to other non-violent offenses such as theft of service, graffiti, and criminal mischief where the property or damage equates to less than $500. In order for the officer to issue a ticket for the offenses, the person must live in the county and positively identified.

The sheriff didn't say how long it would take before his deputies begin to follow it. The goal is to have enough mobile identification units for all deputies on patrol, but Ortiz said the lack of funding is a setback.

Ortiz said he's confident it can help combat jail overcrowding since the county's current inmate population is about 4,038 with capacity at 4,600.

“We're not sending the wrong message to the public that certain crimes are okay or that using marijuana is okay,” he said. “We're just saying we need to handle it in a more efficient manner.”

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