When people commit minor infractions or petty crimes, they are often issued summonses instead of being arrested outright. Law enforcement recognizes that putting someone through the system for something as trivial as peeing in public, drinking alcohol from an open container, or smoking a joint is a waste of police manpower. Of course, if someone already has a criminal record or is too feisty when police are writing up a summons, an immediate arrest is likely to follow. (Rule 1: Be polite to police when they stop you, or you will be arrested.)
Summonses are put in the plus column for police officers because they are judged, in part, by how many arrests they make and summonses they give out. If they don’t show a sufficient number, the precinct sergeant is likely to wonder what the heck they’ve been doing.
However, often because the offenses are so minor and the tickets so unofficial-looking (they’re as thin as toilet paper and as easy to lose), many people issued summonses just ignore them. This comes at a price. Ignore a summons and a warrant will be issued for your arrest. No matter what the excuse is — I couldn’t get off work; I didn’t have the money to take a subway downtown; I plum forgot — it doesn’t matter. Not showing up in court brings an automatic arrest warrant and the risk that any day, any time, the warrant squad will come to your home or office and collect their due — you. (FYI: if you hire a lawyer, many summons matters can be handled by the attorney without your attendance at all.)
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A kind of lackadaisical attitude to summons has led to a huge backlog of warrants. According to a recent New York Times article, there are approximately 1.5 million outstanding warrants for low-level offenses in New York City, many of which are more than 20 years old.
The warrant squad, police specially appointed to look for and arrest warrant offenders, is not big enough to handle that many cases. Plus, they’ve got bigger fish to fry — the guy who failed to come to court after being indicted for rape, or the defendant convicted after trial who went into hiding.
But sometimes they do ferret out the small fry. I often see members of the warrant squad, generally two men in jeans and flak jackets, walking through 100 Centre with a very anxious guy handcuffed between them. He may have been picked up for jumping a turnstile 11 years earlier. Pretty humiliating.
When there are so many real criminals who need to be found, why squander the warrant squad on petty offenses? Because the numbers are on the books and the backlog must be cleared. It’s not dissimilar to the illegal immigrant dilemma. Do we send out scores of agents to ferret out everyone who’s overstayed his visa, or just grant amnesty?
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In relation to the backlog of warrants, the District Attorneys of all five boroughs are currently considering the amnesty option. They’re calling it “warrant forgiveness” (the word “amnesty” having become so politically charged). The forgiveness plan apparently wouldn’t cover all warrants but the DAs, in conjunction with the mayor’s office, are discussing ways to eliminate a major part of the backlog by forgiving warrants that are 10 or 20 years old. According to City Hall statistics, approximately 800,000 warrants (more than half the backlog) are 10 years or older.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance prefers forgiving only those that are 20 years old or older. But Darcel Clark, District Attorney for the Bronx, and Eric Gonzalez, the Acting Brooklyn DA, favor clearing the decks for everything at the 10-year mark. (It’s interesting to note that Clark is African-American and Gonzalez is Hispanic. The majority of the warrants go to black and Hispanic populations, a large part of the communities Clark and Gonzalez represent.)
Whatever is decided, the idea of clearing the backlog makes sense. Not only would it save the warrant police from wasting time on low-level offenses, but with more repressive immigration policies afoot, it could protect undocumented immigrants from being thrust into ICE custody for nothing more than riding a bike on a sidewalk.
Just last week, long-term U.S. resident Guadalupe García de Rayos (an illegal alien) was arrested while reporting, as required, to her immigration officer. Her 2008 conviction for filing a made-up Social Security number at work got her ordered deported. She’d been allowed to stay in the U.S. under immigration supervision as a non-priority case under President Obama. After all, she has two U.S. children and was convicted of a non-violent offense. That all changed last week when ICE made a surprise visit to arrest her.
What’s the connection between this and the warrant issue? Although Garcia de Rayos had a conviction (as opposed to just a warrant), which put her on the priority list of people to be deported under President Trump’s directive, it’s not too far-fetched to think that ICE officials will use the warrant system to identify undocumented aliens or visa-overstays as a way to thrust more people through the deportation pipeline. Granting warrant forgiveness would go a long way toward allowing ICE to focus on those illegal aliens who have committed serious crimes.
Clearing the warrant backlog would also save the city money. True, many summons offenses demand that the actor pay the city a fine, but it’s also true that most people who are issued warrants are poor. They normally don’t have the money to pay fines anyway. The city would also save on public defender costs. Public defenders are posted in summons parts on a daily basis because of the huge volume of cases. And, finally, the District Attorneys from all boroughs would also gain. The goodwill such forgiveness would create in the communities they safeguard would be tremendous.
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Toni Messina has been practicing criminal defense law since 1990, although during law school she spent one summer as an intern in a large Boston law firm and realized quickly it wasn’t for her. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a journalist from Rome, Italy, reporting stories of international interest for CBS News and NPR. She keeps sane by balancing her law practice with a family of three children, playing in a BossaNova band, and dancing flamenco. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or tonimessinalaw.com, and you can also follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.