Man arrested on warrant that he answered earlier that day. Here is a good example of low-hanging fruit for policing reform: this man was arrested on a warrant although, it turns out, the warrant had actually been vacated. This is a somewhat common occurrence. Here's what happens: police have a reason to interact with someone, and run the person's ID over the computer when BING, a hit pops up for an open warrant. The officer then takes the person into custody. A couple of things are important to understand about this. These warrants are almost all what's called a "bench warrant," issued by a judge when someone fails to appear in court (usually to answer a traffic ticket or a minor offense like drinking in public). So the person is not being arrested for anything new they've done; they are being taken into custody to ensure they answer the earlier ticket. It is common for the charges to be dismissed when the person is taken in on the warrant. Some of these warrants shouldn't have even been issued. For example, a few years ago I recalled that I had gotten a disorderly conduct summons almost 20 years earlier at a political demonstration. I remembered that I had pleaded not guilty, but I didn't remember how the case ended. So I went to the courthouse to check, and discovered that there was a bench warrant for me. I went to court to answer the case. The judge examined the file and saw that I had written to ask to reschedule my hearing. My hearing was rescheduled but the court didn't send me the new date. So I didn't appear on the new date, and a warrant was issued. Sometimes, warrants are outstanding even when the case has been dismissed. For example, in my case, the judge dismissed the charge because I wasn't notified of my hearing. All good, right? Well, the judge closed the hearing and I was about to leave when suddenly my legal aid attorney remembered to ask the judge to vacate the warrant. What if he'd forgotten to ask? Well, in that case, even though the warrant should never have been entered and even though my case was dismissed, I would still have an active warrant out today if the judge hadn't remembered to formally vacate it. Of course, I would have no reason to imagine so. And if the police happened to check me, I would be subject to arrest and to spend hours being processed and brought to court, only to discover that my case had already been closed. Whoops! Even now, years later, I do not know whether the NYPD shows an active warrant for me in their database. Why? Because the NYPD maintains a warrant tracking database separate from the court databases. It is not a sure thing that the NYPD database was updated to show that the warrant was vacated, even though the judge ordered it. So I could be stopped and *appear* to have an open warrant only to find out at court (hours of custody later) that the warrant was cleared years ago. What could be done about this? * Legislation could be considered that would automatically dismiss minor cases after some set period of time to save criminal justice resources. Take, for instance, a public urination charge. After a certain point, it becomes impossible to prosecute such a minor case. The arresting officer retires at some point, usually before the case's 20 year anniversary. The law would set out criteria like types of minor charges, age of case, etc., and require automatic dismissal when cases meet those criteria. * The court also needs to ensure that warrants are vacated regularly. That could work in tandem with the above automatic dismissal policy, or separately (to vacate an ancient warrant even if the charges weren't formally dismissed). We could also require the clerk of court to perform a regular accounting of open warrants (biannually, perhaps) and vacate any warrants open in error. * The police department warrant system should be integrated with the court system. This is the 21st century; there's no reason at all why a man should be arrested on a warrant that he was in court answering earlier that day, much less one he answered years before. The computer should never pop a warrant in that situation. Once a judge vacates a warrant or the court does so automatically, that should appear instantly in the PD database. This would be a simple way to prevent hundred and hundreds of people being arrested for no reason every year.
