A car stop on a blue Honda Civic for equipment violations early Tuesday morning resulted in an arrest as the driver was driving on a suspended driver’s license, had an outstanding warrant for his arrest and was carrying suspected methamphetamine.

At 12:50 a.m., Officer Scott Faure searched the car of David Newsome, 51, of Ceres. Instead of taking Newsome to jail, he was given a citation and released at the scene – without his car.

Ceres Police Department spokesman Sgt. Keith Griebel said that the County has asked local police to cite in cases where they can due to COVID. Since possession of meth and other drugs is now a misdemeanor, police can issue misdemeanor citations for those offenses since that the jail is citing people out after the initial booking process.  The same goes for most DUIs. Police collect the evidence needed for prosecution with the suspect’s car towed and offender released to a sober person who can take charge of them after citation.