My agency issues a lot of Class C citations and ends up with arrest warrants for defendants who fail to appear. Sometimes the judge has set a fine and/or bond and listed the amount(s) on the warrant. When the man in uniform shows up with the handcuffs, some defendants want to avoid going to jail by calling a friend or relative to bring a money order to cover the fine or bond.

What does everyone think about taking the defendant to the arresting officer's office to await the arrival of the friend or relative with a money order - at which point the defendant would be released without going to jail and without going before a magistrate. The office may be several miles from the jail.

Good idea because it makes life easier for everyone (officer, defendant, judge and jail)? Bad idea? I have my opinion, but will hold off for now.

Bad idea.

(1) Ripe for abuse. Safer to keep the money out of officers' hands, for everyone's sake (including their own).
(2) What happens when the guy brings the money but the warrant doesn't get w/d (through mistake or confusion) and then the defendant gets arrested again on the same warrant? Everyone gets sued, that's what.

Thank you Shannon. Anybody else?

I'm with Shannon. Bad idea. I see liability issues, false claims against officers (that would not be defended easily if they're in an office and not a jail), and a waste of time on the officer's part (what if the "friend" or "family member" never shows up? You wait and still have to go to the jail anyway).

Since when does the system of justice have to be convenient for those who simply didn't bother to take care of business in the first place? They wouldn't be in the position they're in if they had just shown up or shown just cause why they were unable to appear. (I am of course assuming that these are people who had notice to appear and simply didn't, either through carelessness or intent.)

What if the officer has a receipt book with carbon copy duplicates and the payee signs and dates it? Surely there is some low tech method sufficient to create a paper trail.

Since when is it the officer's job to become a collection agent? If all they had to do was carry a receipt book, then at the time of the original citation they could collect money and issue a receipt and there would never be an issue of FTAs. And how would THAT look? Payments are supposed to go through the clerk for a reason. It is one thing for officers to enforce an open warrant; it is another thing entirely for them to start to handle money. Even an appearance that impropriety exists can be damaging, and we have enough of that perception to deal with already.

Heck, why not just have the officer collect the fine on the highway at the point of the issuance of a ticket? There is a good reason to have separation from the person who makes the accusation of the offense and the person or entity that adjudicates the matter and collects any fine. Blurring that line for the sake of convenience might, at first, seem like a good idea, but institutionally it would be disastrous. Beaurocracy does have it's down moments, but it also helps prevent abuses or false accusations.

Plus seems to create the appearance that the citation was written to generate revenue for your agency and not in the pursuit of justice. Will the public see your officers as public servants or self-interested bill collectors?

Along the same vain, when an officer seizes money under Chapter 59, he cannot cut a deal with the defendant on the scene to forfeit the funds.

So, I think Gretchen, JB, etc...are totally right.

Thank you everyone. I was thinking more along the lines of complying with the requirement to take an arrestee before a magistrate "without unnecessary delay," issues associated with running a holding cell in an office that was not designed for that, and misperceptions that might arise in the minds of people who do not understand the CJ system and may not have a good command of English. But these are some worthy points too.

If you don't, you wind up being the subject of an interesting book (soon to be back on sale), but terrible movie (starring the irrepressible Ricky Schroeder of "Silver Spoons" fame).

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