San Antonio police unveil Cite and Release Dashboard

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The San Antonio Police Department unveiled a dashboard today that visualizes police activity from the first quarter of the year.

The data covers arrests and citations given between January 1 and March 31 for Class B possession of marijuana, Class A possession of marijuana, Class B possession of a substance in penalty group 2-A, Class A possession of a substance in penalty group 2-A, Class B criminal mischief, Class B theft from businesses, Class B theft of service, Class B contraband in a correctional facility and driving while license invalid.

According to the official written report, SAPD encountered a total of 896 individuals eligible for either arrest or issuance of a citation. The department notes that 519 of the individuals encountered had outstanding warrants or multiple arrests that made them ineligible for the cite and release program, leaving 377 total encounters up to the discretion of officers for arrest or release.

You can view the dashboard here.

Officials said the cite and release program authorizes officers to issue citations in lieu of making an arrest for certain Class A and B misdemeanors and the department amended existing policy to expand officer discretion in choosing to cite and release. SAPD consulted with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office to exclude Class A and B misdemeanor graffiti offenses from the cite and release program.

The dashboard reports that police arrested 72 individuals, cited and released 299 people and 6 others were released due to either medical release, emergency detention, or a public intoxication hold.

The report states most police-involved activities came from people between the ages of 21 and 30, followed by ages 31 through 40 with individuals under 20 have the third most recorded police activity. 69% of people involved in all reported police interactions were male and 31% female, according to the dashboard.

Regarding race demographics, 70% of interactions involved a person of Hispanic origin, followed by White at 18%, African American at 11% and the remaining races categorized as Other. Hispanics saw a release rate of 82%, White and African American releases were both 77% and the four cases categorized as Other saw a 100% release rate.