Tucson City Court program honored

The program was developed by the city and TPD in the hopes they could reduce the cost of booking people into the jail.

Instead of booking certain defendants into the jail and then holding their initial appearance, the defendants have their initial appearance at Tucson City Court.

By certain defendants, they mean those suspected of drinking in public, urinating in public, violating city park laws, shoplifting and other petty crimes.

According to the city's news release,  just over 2,000 people were processed through the program in FY2011 and only 68 of them were sent to jail. As a result, city saved $1,071,739 in jail board costs after expenses. 

The city also saved time and money by having police pick up multiple defendants at certain locations, allowing the arresting officers to return to duty instead of having to go to the jail or courthouse.