Trends in Criminal Summons Issuance, Outcomes, and Racial Disparities, 2023-2024
This new research brief examines New York City’s criminal summons system. The analysis covers trends in summons issuance by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from 2013 to 2024; breaks down the data by borough, charge, and race/ethnicity; and explores racial disparities citywide, by borough, and across neighborhoods varying in their median household income.
Drawing on data from the State’s Office of Court Administration, the research brief also indicates how the courts resolved criminal summons cases. Higher than in previous years, the courts threw out over 65% of summonses issued in 2024 for paperwork or legal insufficiency errors and dismissed most of the remaining cases on other grounds. Only 9% of summonses arraigned in court ended in a conviction. These findings suggest that the City’s summons system increasingly operates under a “process is punishment” model—where most cases do not hold up in court but still impose burdens of time, income, stigma, and/or stress on New Yorkers.
The current brief updates an earlier comprehensive report on criminal summons practices through 2022.