What is Dallas County’s new “cite and release” policy all about?

I attended the Dallas County District Attorney’s office’s Cite and Release Forum last night at St.Paul’s United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas last night. Judge Nancy Mulder, Sheriff Lupe Valdez, current Dallas DA Faith Johnson, and a supervisory level Dallas Police Department officer and Dallas County Assistant District Attorney all spoke, and answered questions from the media and other concerned citizens in attendance. This program is a big step in Dallas County criminal practice, but is often misunderstood. I have attached the handout distributed to those in attendance. This is a big step, but not necessarily for the reasons you may think, and you need to know how it works before you make a bad decision that could effect the rest of your life.