VANCOUVER, Wash. (KATU) — The Vancouver Police Department is changing how officers handle several crimes due to a shortage of public defense attorneys.
Police Chief Troy Price announced the changes in a department memo released internally on Friday, and obtained by KATU News. The memo states that the attorney’s office is limiting the types of misdemeanor cases that can be cited into court because of budgetary impacts tied to the lack of public defenders.
Under the new policy, officers will no longer make arrests for several misdemeanor offenses that typically would have been cited directly into municipal court. Instead, those cases will be referred to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for a charging decision…