Please ask your organization to endorse the Citation Option!

Some great organizations have endorsed the Citation Option:

• ACLU of Texas, Central Texas Chapter
• Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition (a coalition of dozens of organizations)
• City of Austin Human Rights Commission
• Grits for Breakfast
  
• LULAC, District 7
• LULAC, District 12
• PODER
• Texas Civil Rights Project
• Texas Jail Project
  

The City of Austin Commission on Immigrant Affairs will meet tomorrow night to vote on a similar resolution, and we've heard that several other organizations are meeting to consider an endorsement.

These groups agree that APD should have an official Citation Option policy in place. Some organizations are seeing APD’s failure to implement the Citation Option as directly related to the current meet and confer negotiations - the budget crunch should have us looking at where we can tighten our belts, not entertaining hiring more officers we don’t need because APD likes to increase their arrest numbers by arresting people unnecessarily. Neighborhood groups want the officers we do have patrolling, not down at the jail for hours doing paperwork on someone who’s license was expired or who was caught with a joint.

Take a look at the organizations that supported the Citation Option bill (HB2391) at the Texas Legislature last year:

• Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT)
• Travis County Commissioners Court
• Travis County Sheriff's Office
• Travis County Sheriff's Law Enforcement Association
• Houston Police Officers Union
• Texas State Lodge & Fraternal Order of Police
• Texas Conference of Urban Counties
• Texans for Public Safety Solutions
• Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice
• Texas Criminal Justice Coalition
• Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
• Texas Fair Defense Project
• American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

With this amazing group supporting the Citation Option at the state and local level … Will you ask your organization to endorse? Have we missed organizations that have already voted to endorse? Please let us know if we should add your org to the list or if you know of a group we should contact!