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City Council Meeting Minutes April 21, 2020 community will ultimately be safer if people who are low-risk avoid arrest and jail to the greatest extent possible. To maximize the impact of this ordinance, limits on when officers may arrest instead of issue a citation is essential. By allowing officers any justification for not issuing a citation at Council's last meeting (i.e., by striking "only" from Section 2), the issuance of a citation in lieu of arrest would no longer be limited to the enumerated circumstances and would essentially become entirely within each officer's discretion. If this amendment stands, the ordinance will not have its intended impact of improving safety and reducing racial disparities. The experience in Austin is instructive. Prior to the adoption of the Austin Police Department's new cite -and -release policy in November 2018 at the instruction of the Austin City Council, APD actually had an existing policy that covered most offenses eligible under state law. The problem was that the old policy provided such an extensive list of exceptions for when citation was not required to be used that custodial arrests were very common and citations less so. Moreover, Austin police discretionarily arrested Black residents at double the rate of white residents. (Comments were limited to three minutes, time expired) Mary Schmid Mergler: Testimony for Tuesday, April 21, 2020, Meeting of San Marcos City Council Submitted by Mary Mergler, Texas Appleseed. Texas Appleseed strongly supports the ordinance being considered today regarding the San Marcos Police Department's Increased Use of Citations in Lieu of Arrest. Texas Appleseed works across the state to reform the criminal legal system with the goals of ending wealth -based punishment, racial disparities and the cycle of debt and poverty perpetuated by the current system. Issuing citations so that low-risk people can avoid unnecessary arrests and jail stays is essential to accomplish those goals. A growing body of research shows how devastating arrests and jail time are for low-risk individuals, causing loss of employment, loss of housing, and other negative consequences, ultimately increasing their likelihood of re -arrests in the future and decreasing their chances of future employment and financial stability. San Marcos will ultimately be safer if people who are low-risk avoid arrest and jail to the greatest extent possible. We also urge you to undo several amendments to the ordinance made on April 7th that would significantly weaken its impact. Specifically, we support reinserting the word "only" into Section 2, so that officers do not have unfettered discretion as to whether to issue a citation or make an arrest. Only by limiting such discretion will this ordinance accomplish its intended goal of minimizing unnecessary arrests. Further, we support undoing the amendment made last meeting changing the "imminent danger" exception from an objective standard to a subjective one. Returning to the objective standard in the City of San Marcos Page 7