SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Low-level offenses in San Marcos are now being punished with a citation instead of an arrest. San Marcos is now the first city in Texas to implement a cite-and-release ordinance, making it a law for officers to issue citations for certain crimes.

The statute will limit San Marcos police from arresting for misdemeanors like possession of small amounts of marijuana or driving with an invalid license. This has been an option since 2010, but Interim Police Chief Bob Klett said a push from the community over the last year is what sparked this formal change.

"​Since 2010, this has kind of been on the books where officers have the choice to use cite and release for certain offenses, or arrest. Neither one was a preferred scenario, it was an option. We've done it over the years, we've trained about it, but it was never just one of those big asks from the community," Klett said. "So this last summer, really, we got the first hint of it when there was a push to have an ordinance about ‘officers should use cite and release more.’ Normally, we work the community and we try to adjust what we do, we're really a reflection of our community as a police department. And in this case, you know, it went to ordinance and so we started adapting at that point to do it more in earnest as that became a concern in the community."

A grassroots organization based in Hays County, Mano Amiga, first presented a draft ordinance to San Marcos City Council in July 2019 and has been actively pushing for a formal ordinance ever since. The nonprofit claimed a major victory, it says, when council voted 4-3 back in April in favor of creating this ordinance. Council members Marquez, Rockeymoore, Baker and Derrick voted for it; Mayor Hughson, Mayor Pro-Tem Mihalkanin and council member Gonzales voted against it.

"[This] triumph marks the first step down a path that leads to greater liberation and justice for the people of Hays County via prudent modernization of our criminal legal system," said Mano Amiga, policy director Eric Martinez. "We thank everyone who joined this shared effort to reduce unnecessary arrests, and also those who will continue to march alongside us as we pursue expanded transformation of our community for the better in weeks and months ahead."

This is a list of the offenses that are eligible for a citation in lieu of an arrest:​

• Class C misdemeanors other than public intoxication, assault, or family violence
• Possession of marijuana, less than 4 ounces, Class A or Class B misdemeanor
• Driving while license invalid, Class B misdemeanor
• Criminal mischief, Class B misdemeanor
• Graffiti, Class A or Class B misdemeanor
• Theft of property less than $375, Class B misdemeanor
• Theft of services less than $375, Class B misdemeanor

Attorney Shannon Fitzpatrick said she’s proud San Marcos now has a "community standard" of policing.

“The city council made a decision to say we've seen instances in the past where, for example, people of color rarely if ever got cite and release, whereas white people often got cite and release. Because this has been on the books as available since 2010," Fitzpatrick said. "So we've been able to do it for a long time. There were disparities there and I think the council fairly said 'we don't want the disparities there. We're going to try this, but we don't need to hope it goes away, let's just make it go away. We'll keep track of it, we'll guide our officers, and we'll continue to work on this.' And it's I think it's a great move."

RELATED: Report: San Marcos Police Released Only 6% of Eligible Cite-and-Release Cases

The order went into effect Sunday, May 31 after Klett requested time to update policies and train his officers. However, he said they’ve been complying with the ordinance since back in April.

"It was just one of those things of changing the mindset of the officers that, we've always been trained that, you know, ‘this offense happens, you make an arrest.’ Well, now we're transitioning to okay ‘this offense happens, you have an option now of arrest or citation,’ and we can lean more towards citation now that we know that it’s an ask. And that's what we started doing, even last summer already. So it's not a big surprise. We've been very communicative with our officers. And so they've known this was coming, they've been adapting to it," Klett said. "COVID-19 actually helped a lot with changing our stance on it of, you know, we're going to use cite and release absolutely when it's available because of our exposure to others, exposing themselves to us and then also the general environment."

Fitzpatrick agreed, saying: "They've already been doing well, that's the interesting part of it with COVID-19, they haven't been arresting as much. And still, our crime hasn't gone up. The police officers are safer, which as a citizen makes me feel better that they're not at risk of spreading it or catching it. So it's already working​."

San Marcos police are still allowed to arrest in certain instances such as if the person isn’t a Hays County resident, they have an outstanding warrant, they're a risk to themselves or others or they're refusing to provide proper ID.

Fitzpatrick said making this change will be beneficial in that it will keep people from having to spend that initial night in jail, however, the charge on their record will still remain the same until, and if, it's later able to be expunged.

"The new ordinance doesn't change the consequences of what they do. It's just saying, if you don't have to arrest somebody, don't. Give them the charges, tell them to report to court, they'll still go to court, they'll still face the same consequences. It's just that initial night in jail where it hurts a lot of people in a variety of ways," Fitzpatrick said. "They don't risk losing a job. They don't risk failing a class, they don't, in some cases, lose custody of their children."

Moving forward, Klett said street level diversions, which they've been doing his entire career, will be formally tracked. He said this is something that wasn't happening before. As for any concerns he or any of his officers have, he said it's too early to tell what consequences, if any, this new law will have.

"Our officers are professionals here. They’re here to serve the community. They understand the diverse community that we work in with the university, with our populations. And they’ve been very good at that for years, which is why we enjoy such great community support and why we’re willing to move and adapt to what the community wants and this is just a continuation of that," Klett said. "People have all their different opinions about this going into this and we'll see how those all bear out. Hays County has been doing a lot of changes in criminal justice reform, looking at how we magistrate people a lot faster than the next morning. The judges had been working on getting misdemeanors out of jail without having to stay more than a day. So there's been a whole lot of changes going on at once and all these things combined will have effects on the community that we'll see how they all pan out.​"

City Council will receive a status update three months from when the ordinance was enacted on May 31.