Coon Rapids project lets minor offenders avoid court date

It now may be a better deal to just own up to a traffic offense in the city of Coon Rapids.

The city hopes that the Citizen Awareness Project (CAP) will reduce the petty misdemeanor and misdemeanor cases the city takes to Anoka County court dockets and that it will mean savings and new revenue for city coffers.

People who commit certain traffic and other minor offenses can take their cases to the city attorney, rather than the county court. If they qualify, they can have their offenses resolved and dismissed from their records by paying a reduced fine and participating in a short educational program.

The program officially launched last week. As of Tuesday, 14 people were seen for offenses including expired tabs and licenses, speeding and driving after suspension.

Coon Rapids City Attorney Stoney Hiljus and his staff noted that Anoka County District Court judges had begun to comment on the size of their case calendars.

"It was not uncommon for us to have 200 to 250 cases on a morning arraignment calendar," he said. "It's virtually impossible to handle that many cases in a morning once a week. ... The way it worked was there were too many cases and not enough time to do it in."

And the city ended up paying overtime for police officers to hang out at court waiting to testify.

"A big benefit we're hoping for when we've taken those cases out of the court system is that when we do take a case to the court system, we'll be able to spend more time on them and take them more seriously," Hiljus said.

While other government bodies, counties, mostly, run juvenile diversion programs, Hiljus couldn't find a similar adult program in Minnesota. Coon Rapids modeled its program after similar ones in Columbus, Ohio, and Topeka, Kan. Now he's fielding calls from other cities interested in learning more.

Here's how it works: When people are ticketed in Coon Rapids, the police officer hands them not just a ticket, but a brochure about the CAP program. The defendant calls the city attorney's office; someone there reviews the offense, as well as the defendant's criminal record, in Coon Rapids and across the state.

"People who have a clean record and are not on probation, and don't have any other offenses pending, would qualify," Hiljus said.

When defendants do qualify, they are told to come to City Hall, where they watch short educational videos, tailored to their offenses. After they pay a fee to cover the program's cost, they and their charges are dismissed, and expunged if they have no offenses for a year. The whole process takes no more than 35 minutes.

"It's intriguing, especially in tough economic times," Hiljus said, adding that he had been troubled by the idea of people who might be trying to find work but have a suspended license because of an unpaid speeding offense.

Because the program bypasses the District Court, the whole fee goes to the city general fund, instead of being shared with the county and state. And the city hopes to save about $100,000 a year in police overtime.

Hiljus is hoping his office won't have to add staff to administer the program. It's paper-free, so the plan is managed by redistributing work duties.

Alethea Stern, of Blaine, decided to use the program after receiving a speeding ticket.

Despite a long wait to see a prosecutor last Monday, the day the program launched, she said the requirements weren't too onerous, and given a choice she'd use the program again. Other than that, what would she do?