The practice of arresting individuals involved in fine-only offenses should be outright banned, according to an urban policy analyst.
“It has been long past time to bring it to an end,” Charles Blain, president of the Urban Reform Institute, said. “This policy, and others like it, disproportionately target low-income, often minority Texans and needs to end.”
For example, in Collin County on Feb. 16, Rodney Reese was arrested for walking home on a street during the winter storm and spent one night in jail, according to CBS DFW News. The misdemeanor charge was eventually dropped.
“It’s problematic because often it results in targeting people for being poor,” said Blain, who volunteers with the Prison Entrepreneurship Program where he serves on the Houston advisory board. “For instance, arresting someone for a broken tail light. The likelihood is that it remained broken not because they wanted to defy the law but because their financial situation made them choose between that and paying a bill.”
A University of California at Irvine study found that the 12.2 million individuals arrested every year also experience mental health repercussions.
“The worst-case scenario is we keep targeting low-income and minority communities, further disrupting their lives, over a predatory practice,” Blain told the Lone Star Standard.
About 64,100 traffic stops resulted in an unnecessary arrest of a driver on a minor traffic violation in 2019, according to data reported by police departments. These arrests take hours of police and booking time, which analysts view as a waste of criminal justice resources.
“They often do so as a way to find other offenses,” Blain said in an interview. “If they can stop and arrest someone for a Class C misdemeanor they then have the ability to check for other potential crimes that person may have committed even if there is no direct evidence of them committing another crime.”
A study released this year by the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston states that 74% of Texans support ending arrests for fine-only offenses.
Through the Urban Reform Institute, Blain focuses on finding free market solutions to urban problems and creating opportunities for the nation's metropolitan areas. Originally from New Jersey, Blain relocated to Houston to join Texans for Greg Abbott's run for governor in 2014. Subsequently, the Fairleigh Dickinson University graduate worked with Empower Texans, a nonprofit that advocates for free market principles in Texas.
