The vast majority of criminal summonses issued in New York City get dismissed in court, usually due to insufficiency of the information police officers provide in them, and they are issued disproportionately more to Black and Hispanic people, according to a study of official data released Monday.

The study by John Jay College's Data Collaborative for Justice, which looks at 2024 data compiled by the state court system, shows that 69% of criminal summonses were dismissed at a defendant's court hearing. Only 9% percent of the summonses resulted in convictions.

A large majority of the dismissals — over 65% — were due to paperwork errors or "facial insufficiency." The reasons included the New York Police Department submitting the summonses to the criminal court past the 20-day limit required by law, or mistakes such as providing the court with the wrong copy of the summons form or writing an incorrect court date. Other times, it was illegible handwriting.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

In New York City, police can issue a criminal summons for certain minor offenses instead of making an arrest or taking fingerprints. These summonses may cover misdemeanors, violations or infractions. The majority of them are issued for low-level offenses such as drinking alcohol in public, disorderly conduct and some traffic violations.

Anna Stenkamp, a researcher at the Data Collaborative for Justice, said in an interview Monday that even when they don't hold up in court, criminal summonses have a "process as punishment" effect for people facing charges, because it forces them to show up to court under the threat of penalties.

"You just have all of these often extensive steps to go through just for that to be the outcome," she said. "That's your punishment."

A person who receives a criminal summons is required to appear in criminal or community court on the date listed — or any time up to a week before. If they plead guilty or are found guilty at trial, the court may impose fines, surcharges or community service, and in some cases, jail time. Failing to show up by the scheduled court date results in the court issuing a warrant for their arrest.

Stenkamp said the low conviction rate raises questions on the use of police resources to hold large numbers of people accountable for minor transgressions, especially when people may have to take a day off from work to go to court — only to see a summons being tossed.

"With the high volume of dismissals as outcomes, it raises questions on if summons enforcement could deter future misconduct or impact New Yorkers' safety," she said. 

Police officers can, at their discretion, issue civil summonses instead of criminal ones for some of the same offenses. Civil summonses are handled by the city's administrative court and do not result in criminal penalties.

The number of criminal summonses issued in New York City has fallen dramatically and steadily over the course of the last decade, according to the study. The NYPD issued over 391,000 criminal summonses in 2013. There were less than 25,000 of such summonses issued in 2021.

But during the mayoralty of Eric Adams, a Democrat who ran on a public safety platform in response to the uptick in crime following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal summonses have tripled, the study said.

The increased reliance on summonses in the last few years, the result of the Adams administration's focus on quality-of-life offenses — under the theory that tackling low-level crimes makes an impact for serious ones — undercut the city's earlier efforts to reform its policing practices to make them more equitable, the Data Collaborative for Justice said in a statement accompanying the study. 

In 2017, the Criminal Justice Reform Act allowed, but did not require, the NYPD to issue a civil summons in lieu of a criminal summons for five types of low-level offenses — drinking alcohol in public, noise, public urination, littering and park offenses. The year after the legislation was enacted, criminal summonses for those offenses plummeted by 94%, according to the study.

A police reform plan approved by the New York City Council in March 2021 sought to reduce the enforcement of minor offenses as a way to mitigate disparate effects on low-income New Yorkers and people of color compared to white residents.

The findings of the study released Monday show that racial disparities in the issuance of criminal summonses have persisted.

In 2024, Black people were issued summonses at over six times the rate of white people. Such a ratio has declined since 2021, when it was in the 12-times order, but still presents a problem, Stenkamp said.

Historical data shows that the NYPD has issued most docketed summonses to Black and Hispanic New Yorkers. About 84% of docketed summonses in 2023 and 78% in 2024 were issued to Black and Hispanic people, despite their accounting for only a combined 51% of the city's general population, the study shows.

The disparities were widest in high-income neighborhoods. While making up only 16% of the population in neighborhoods with a median household income over $125,000, Black or Hispanic people received 64% of 2024 summonses issued to these neighborhoods' residents, according to the findings.

"The fact that we still have such large disparities is concerning and should be addressed," Stenkamp said. "That was really the goal of the police reform plan."

--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.