Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) is calling for an increase in the use of civil citations. When juveniles are arrested and booked, they later have a chance to have that record expunged. Still, Brandes says, the record never truly goes away.
“It’s not just having an arrest record that can be somewhere be expunged, when someone’s got a booking photo it tends to be a scarlet letter that follows them for the rest of their life," Brandes said.
Brandes was joined by religious leaders in a virtual press conference Thursday. He wants the statewide average rate for use of civil citations to be brought up to 80%. Bernice Powell Jackson is Pastor at First United Church in Hillsborough County where the usage rate is below 40%.
“There is no reason for the statewide usage rates be less than the best practice of 80%, especially when we know that 95% of the children who get civil citations never get in trouble again," Jackson said.
Neighboring Pinellas County has a usage rate of 99%, the highest in the state. In 2019, 5,000 children were arrested for first-time misdemeanor offenses.
