The Citation Project - Final Report

Are you thinking about implementing a citation in lieu of arrest policy? Have you been implementing a policy and want to improve it? The UNC School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab recently released a final report for the Citation Project, which included four recommendations for those interested in this work. This post summarizes the report and those recommendations. A Collaborative Policing Project The Citation Project involved development, implementation, and evaluation of a model citation in lieu of arrest policy. It was executed by the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police in partnership with the UNC School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab. The research team included Policy Research Associates and North Carolina State University. The model policy was developed under the guidance of the project’s police chief members, and it provided that officers had discretion to cite, arrest, or decline to charge. It recommended use of a citation in misdemeanor encounters except when the law required arrest, there was statutory support for imposition of secured bond, or exigent circumstances existed. Implementation in Diverse Pilot Sites After an application period, four demographically and geographically diverse pilot sites were chosen: Apex, Elizabeth City, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem police departments. On December 1, 2020, the sites began implementing the model policy. Evaluation Findings You can read about the full evaluation findings in the final report here. Some key takeaways include: Sites experienced implementation challenges, including limited patrol officer buy-in. Citation rates did not increase following implementation. However, we also found that citation rates [...]