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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – An announcement is expected Monday that could dramatically change the way minor drug offenses are handled in New York City.
According to the New York Times, police will stop making arrests in most low-level marijuana cases. Instead, offenders will only be issued a ticket.
City Hall sources told CBS2 details of the plan will be announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton Monday afternoon.
The mayor is responding to increased political pressure to make good on campaign promises to reform policing, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported.
After the recent resignation of NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks, long-time supporters have revved up criticism of what they say is the slow pace of reform.
“This illuminates a systematic problem in the New York City Police Department that has gone on for decades,” Assemblyman Karim Camara, D-Brooklyn, said last week.
“There is still a disparate impact on who is being arrested for marijuana,” City Councilman Jumaane Williams, D-Brooklyn, said last week. “When you look at the numbers, everybody uses marijuana but only one set of people are being arrested for it.”
According to a Queens College study, 86 percent of the NYPD arrests for marijuana possession in the first eight months of the year were blacks and Hispanics.
But not everyone in the police department is on board. Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said it’s the beginning of the crime-fighting pendulum moving backwards, Kramer reported.
“I see this as a very, very lax police atmosphere to which we’re sending a message to the public that it’s OK to do what you want to do on the street regardless of what the law says.”
The New York City Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said she does not see the reduction in pot arrests as a road to lawlessness.
“Police officers are constantly making value judgements about how to deal with minor offenses,” she told 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa.
But she said summons do make it “hard to document the racial impact of a policy if you don’t have the data.”
“We know that marijuana smoking and possession is really as much a white offense as it is by people of color,” she said. “When somebody gets a summons, we don’t know the race of the person who is summoned.”
That’s why Lieberman is calling for state legislation that would provide transparency.
“It’s really important that we get full transparency about who is being subjected to summonses,” she said.
Experts in the field of drug rehabilitation are also concerned about the new policy, saying marijuana use can be addictive and is a gateway drug to using more dangerous substances.
“We don’t want the city to become a marijuana festival,” said Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal with Phoenix House. “Marijuana is a very dangerous drug for adolescents, it’s very dangerous drug for people who have a potential for mental illness and we don’t want to give a wrong message that marijuana use is OK.”
Last year, the NYPD arrested more than 28,000 people for marijuana possession.
Earlier this year, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced a new policy that allows prosecutors to use their discretion to dismiss many class B misdemeanor pot possession claims on a case-by-case basis.
Thompson said the arrests are taking resources away from dealing with more serious crimes
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/11/10/report-de-blasio-administration-to-announce-new-pot-policy/
According to the New York Times, police will stop making arrests in most low-level marijuana cases. Instead, offenders will only be issued a ticket.
City Hall sources told CBS2 details of the plan will be announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton Monday afternoon.
The mayor is responding to increased political pressure to make good on campaign promises to reform policing, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported.
After the recent resignation of NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks, long-time supporters have revved up criticism of what they say is the slow pace of reform.
“This illuminates a systematic problem in the New York City Police Department that has gone on for decades,” Assemblyman Karim Camara, D-Brooklyn, said last week.
“There is still a disparate impact on who is being arrested for marijuana,” City Councilman Jumaane Williams, D-Brooklyn, said last week. “When you look at the numbers, everybody uses marijuana but only one set of people are being arrested for it.”
According to a Queens College study, 86 percent of the NYPD arrests for marijuana possession in the first eight months of the year were blacks and Hispanics.
But not everyone in the police department is on board. Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said it’s the beginning of the crime-fighting pendulum moving backwards, Kramer reported.
“I see this as a very, very lax police atmosphere to which we’re sending a message to the public that it’s OK to do what you want to do on the street regardless of what the law says.”
The New York City Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said she does not see the reduction in pot arrests as a road to lawlessness.
“Police officers are constantly making value judgements about how to deal with minor offenses,” she told 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa.
But she said summons do make it “hard to document the racial impact of a policy if you don’t have the data.”
“We know that marijuana smoking and possession is really as much a white offense as it is by people of color,” she said. “When somebody gets a summons, we don’t know the race of the person who is summoned.”
That’s why Lieberman is calling for state legislation that would provide transparency.
“It’s really important that we get full transparency about who is being subjected to summonses,” she said.
Experts in the field of drug rehabilitation are also concerned about the new policy, saying marijuana use can be addictive and is a gateway drug to using more dangerous substances.
“We don’t want the city to become a marijuana festival,” said Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal with Phoenix House. “Marijuana is a very dangerous drug for adolescents, it’s very dangerous drug for people who have a potential for mental illness and we don’t want to give a wrong message that marijuana use is OK.”
Last year, the NYPD arrested more than 28,000 people for marijuana possession.
Earlier this year, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced a new policy that allows prosecutors to use their discretion to dismiss many class B misdemeanor pot possession claims on a case-by-case basis.
Thompson said the arrests are taking resources away from dealing with more serious crimes
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/11/10/report-de-blasio-administration-to-announce-new-pot-policy/
