Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2018
Source: Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Copyright: 2018 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Kevin Litten

NOPD MARIJUANA ARRESTS PLUNGED TO 1 PERCENT AFTER ORDINANCE CHANGE

People arrested and held on simple marijuana possession became nearly
non-existent in New Orleans in the year since the City Council passed
an ordinance that allowed police to issue summons instead of using a
custodial arrest.

City Councilwoman Susan Guidry shared data on Tuesday (March 27)
showing that just 1 percent of encounters between police and someone
accused of possessing marijuana resulted in an arrest between June
2016 and May 2017. A year before, 15 percent of people were arrested
for simple possession.

Between 2011 and 2014, the arrest rate was 72 percent.

Guidry said those numbers reflect the fact that beginning in 2010,
City Council members began urging the New Orleans Police Department to
stop spending time on simple marijuana possession arrests because it
was a waste of its resources.

During that time period, Guidry said, the message resulted in police
reducing simple marijuana possession arrests by about 5,000 compared
with the four years prior to the council taking office. She said it
also reduced the number of contacts police made with marijuana offenders.

"It was just astounding to see the effect this message had," Guidry
said.

Even so, Guidry said that the data during 2011-2014 showed there was
more work to be done: 75 percent of people arrested for marijuana
possession were black. The council was able to begin reducing that
number in 2016 after the Louisiana Legislature changed marijuana laws
in an effort to reduce the state's jail population, and allowed for
municipalities to handle marijuana offenses using municipal ordinances.

That resulted in the council adopting an ordinance that fines an
offender $40 for a first offense, $60 for the second, $80 for the
third and $100 for fourth offense and any other subsequent offenses.
Officers were still allowed to use their discretion on whether a
custodial arrest was needed, but NOPD implemented a policy that made
arrests the exception rather than the rule.

"In our estimation, the punishment more neatly matches the crime,"
Guidry said. "This means our money and resources and efforts can be
spent elsewhere."

Guidry also called the number of arrests "an incredible decrease,"
adding, "the effects of this are of course valuable not only to the
defendant but also the NOPD."

Each marijuana arrest takes about six hours, Guidry said, meaning that
officers have much more time they can use to investigate more serious
crimes.
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MAP posted-by: Matt