When Joe Negron delivered his inaugural speech as Florida Senate president last month, the Stuart Republican told listeners how he and a friend made some mischief with political campaign signs. An officer called Negron's home and said the boys would be picked up if they did not quickly clean up a mess they'd made.
"We cannot and should not tolerate serious wrongdoing by young people," Negron said. "But at the same time, let's not criminalize adolescence."
With that in mind, police agencies around the state have been making greater use of civil citations as an alternative to arrest and a criminal record for juveniles whose first offense is a nonviolent misdemeanor. Examples of eligible offenses include schoolyard fights without injuries, underage drinking or shoplifting. Crimes involving weapons or gangs are ineligible.
Gov. Rick Scott signed the civil citation program into law in 2011. Five years later, it appears to be successful throughout the state.
There are at least three good reasons for police agencies to use the civil citation tool:
•Children who are arrested get a stain on their records that haunts them for years as they apply for jobs and strive to be productive adults.
•Statistics show children in Florida who get cited are about half as likely to re-offend as those who get arrested. That makes citations better for public safety, as well as for kids.
•And processing children through the criminal-justice system after arrests is much more expensive than dealing with them after a civil citation. A St. Petersburg think tank calculated that Orange County could have saved at least $1.3 million in the past year if it had used citations for all eligible youth instead of just 39 percent of them. Those resources could have been redirected toward fighting more serious crimes, or returned to taxpayers.
"I've been in law enforcement since 1981, and this (civil citation program) is one of the best things that has been done, so we don't ruin a kid's future," we were told by BSO Capt. Scott Russell, who is in charge of community service. "Every adult in this country has done stupid things when they were young."
Broward officers gave out 930 civil citations in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That's down from the 1,080 citations the previous year, but juvenile arrests are down statewide.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel has been a big supporter of the program during his four years in office, even expanding the program to the point where if a youngster is eligible for the program, he automatically gets the civil citation rather than face arrest. The Juvenile First Offender Program (JFO) is also used in Palm Beach County.
Gov. Scott, to his credit, has made reducing juvenile arrest rates one of his priorities. His first appointee to lead the state Department of Juvenile Justice, Wansley Walters, was a pioneer of this policy as the head of the Miami-Dade Juvenile Services Department.
At a news conference last week called by the Orange County League of Women Voters, law-enforcement and judicial leaders stressed that citations are not a "get-out-of-jail-free card" for eligible children. They may be required to pay restitution to their victims, perform community service, write letters of apology and take courses in anger and impulse management.
Advocates say training makes the difference. Police in Miami-Dade, who issue citations in 94 percent of cases, operate under the expectation from their leaders that they will cite rather than arrest young first-time offenders for nonviolent misdemeanors.
Children who make mistakes are better off getting a second chance without getting arrested. Who knows? They might grow up to be president of the Florida Senate some day.