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7 <br /> failure to appear as required.They thus recommend adoption of the decision-making process set forth <br /> in Appendix B for responding to non-appearances in district court.The proposed decision-making <br /> process is designed to encourage consideration of alternatives to orders for arrest in appropriate, lower- <br /> level misdemeanor cases. Key features include: <br /> • Application in district court only. <br /> • Focus on lower-level misdemeanor charges. <br /> • Preservation of the judge's discretion. <br /> • Simple and fast execution. <br /> Stakeholders discussed whether driving while license revoked (DWLR) charges should be treated as an <br /> exception to the new decision-making process for responding to non-appearances.Although they <br /> decided that the new process should apply to those offenses,they developed special procedures for <br /> DWLR charges to integrate them with the new decision-making process.Their consensus <br /> recommendations on this issue are included in this report as Appendix C. <br /> Next Steps <br /> The Working Group recommends that these tools be adopted into the local Bail Policy or by Standing <br /> Administrative Order.To facilitate implementation, the Working Group has crafted a detailed <br /> Implementation Plan. Finally, the Working Group proposes that if these recommendations are adopted, <br /> that it collaborate with Smith to pursue grant funding allowing the UNC Criminal Justice Innovation Lab <br /> to conduct an empirical evaluation of the impact of these reforms.An empirical evaluation will provide <br /> important feedback to stakeholders and community members regarding whether or not the proposed <br /> reforms achieve desired criminal justice metrics and/or create unintended consequences. <br /> 4 <br />