Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons^™

Citation In Lieu Of Arrest: The New California Law, Floyd F. Feeney

Vanderbilt Law Review

Sixty years ago, before the traffic infraction became a common occurrence, police departments found it necessary to make physical arrests in the case of each traffic violation. As the number of violations mounted, however, the arrest procedure proved to be too cumbersome and demanding. This led to the invention of a new procedure, the citation of promise to appear. The new system proved to be both convenient and practical and in short order it virtually replaced the old arrest procedure. Surprisingly, however, the invention of the new procedure did not lead to a rethinking of the need to arrest and …