The Houston Police Department’s cite and release program has shrunk by about 96 percent since it began, according to departmental data obtained by Houston Public Media through a public records request. The outlet reports 206 cite and release cases in 2020 and eight so far in 2026.
Cite and release lets an officer issue a citation instead of making an arrest for certain misdemeanors, such as misdemeanor theft and criminal mischief. Former Mayor Sylvester Turner created the program by executive order in 2020 with the stated aim of freeing up officers and reducing the jail population.
Police Chief Noe Diaz told Houston Public Media he was not sure what drove the decline and said he considers the program important. Houston Police Officers’ Union president Douglas Griffith questioned the figures, which the department provided and verified in response to the records request. A spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said it would defer to HPD for comment on the program. Houston Public Media reports that HPD and Mayor John Whitmire’s office did not answer follow up questions about the trend.
This is a Lake Houston area story because Kingwood sits inside Houston city limits, so HPD is the police department that answers calls there, and arrest or citation decisions made under city policy apply in the neighborhood. The Harris County Jail, which the program was meant to relieve, is the jail that holds people arrested across the county, including in Humble, Atascocita and Huffman.
More City of Houston coverage: more than 100 HPD contacts with ICE from April through June and the council clearing the way to sell the HPD and Public Works headquarters downtown.
