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Juveniles to get citations for minor offenses

News Leader - 5/11/2017

Officials representing law enforcement agencies in the 4th Judicial Circuit, including the Nassau County Sheriff's Office and Fernandina Beach Police Department, expect to sign a memorandum of understanding with the State Attorney's Office today to expand a program that has given thousands of Florida juveniles accused of certain offenses second chances over the past few years.

The state Legislature established the civil citation program in 2011 as an alternative to arrest for youth who commit common misdemeanor offenses such as a school fight without injury, vandalizing a bathroom wall or stealing a low-value item from a store.

"NCSO supports and anticipates signing a renewed Circuit-wide memorandum of understanding (?MOU') between all law enforcement and prosecution partners in 4th Judicial Circuit. This renewed MOU has been revised to maximize the list of crimes for which a civil citation may be issued," Sheriff Bill Leeper stated recently in an email to the News-Leader.

Fernandina Beach Police Chief Jim Hurley also confirmed today's signing of the MOU.

"We are meeting with Melissa Nelson and her staff (today) after the Police Memorial Day Ceremony at the new NCSO Admin Building. We will be entering into a new MOU with the SAO and we will be updating our internal policies accordingly," he wrote in an email to the News-Leader last week.

Hurley also enumerated a long list of benefits resulting from the use of civil citations with juvenile offenders:

? Promote accountability and immediate intervention;

? Provide swift consequences for qualified juvenile offenders;

? Increase public safety by assessing and referring "at-risk" qualified juvenile offenders to intervention programs with the goal of reducing recidivism;

? Ensure appropriate resource allocation;

? Save taxpayer dollars by producing cost-effective outcomes for qualified juvenile offenders;

? Prevent lifelong consequences associated with an arrest, adjudication or conviction;

? Result in no arrest record upon successful completion of the program;

? Assist in ensuring consistent treatment of juvenile offenders throughout the circuit;

? Seek to reduce repeat offenses by qualified juvenile offenders;

? Encourage more efficient use of law enforcement, the court system and the State Attorney's Office;

? Reduce the number of juvenile offender referrals to the justice system;

? Reduce costs associated with administration of the criminal juvenile justice system.

Leeper indicated that expanding the civil citation in writing is only a first step, which will be followed by additional training.

"The MOU also addresses continued training by law enforcement personnel, and NCSO is committed to providing additional in-service training to our school resource officers and patrol deputies to further enhance the use of the civil citation program. Of course, the officers need to retain some discretion as long as they are able to articulate why they deviated from issuing a civil citation," he stated in his email.

State legislators pressed this year to expand the number of offenses at the state level that would be eligible for the civil citation program.

Senate President Pro Tempore Anitere Flores (R-Miami), recently supported House Bill 301 (Senate Bill 196), which would have added possession of alcoholic beverages, trespass and disorderly conduct, among others, to the list of eligible offenses, though the legislation did not see final passage in the Florida House.

"In too many cases, we have become a society where law enforcement officers are brought in to referee the day-to-day challenges that come with raising children. Instead of helping our youth to learn positively from their mistakes like we once did, they could be put in the juvenile justice system, creating a criminal record that could potentially follow them for their rest of their lives," Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said.

"There needs to be a delicate balance here. We should not, and we will not, tolerate serious wrongdoing committed by young people. At the same time, we need workable solutions that move away from the over-criminalization of adolescents. We need to find an appropriate balance between public safety and decriminalizing the youthful mistakes of adolescents. Next session, we will continue to make the case with our House colleagues on this important issue," Negron said.