Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday that most pot smokers caught puffing in public won’t get arrested starting on Sept. 1.
The new policy is expected to cut the number of pot arrests by about 10,000 a year. Last year, there were 17,500 arrests.
De Blasio made the announcement at a recreation center in East Harlem, the neighborhood that has topped the city for pot busts.
“You can arrest fewer people, and make everyone safer,” de Blasio said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that most people caught smoking marijuana in public won’t be arrested starting on Sept. 1, 2018. (serdjophoto / Getty Images / iStockphoto)
Most public pot smokers will now get criminal summonses with a fine up to $100, instead of getting cuffed. But there will be exceptions: people with open warrants, on parole or probation, lacking identification, with a violent criminal record in the last three years, or caught smoking while driving will still get arrested.
Cops will also have the discretion to make arrests if they determine there’s a solid law enforcement reason to do so, such as if someone is smoking in a park around kids or smoking on a subway or bus. A high number of complaints about smoking at a particular location could also lead to arrests, but a precinct supervisor will have to sign off on discretionary arrests.
De Blasio and the NYPD came under fire over stats showing the vast majority of people arrested for weed possession are black and Latino.
He ordered the NYPD to do a 30-day review of its marijuana enforcement policy but told the Daily News last month he planned to stop public smoking arrests in most cases.
Hizzoner, who has long opposed the legalization of marijuana, has also formed a task force to prepare for the day the drug becomes legal. Gov. Cuomo’s health commissioner Howard Zucker revealed that a coming report will recommend legalization of recreational pot in the state.
De Blasio in his first year in office ordered a halt to arrests for people caught with marijuana in their possession, but not smoking it. The number of arrests dropped, but 86% of those still arrested were black and Latino.
“The NYPD does not target anyone based on race or any other demographic,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at the press conference with de Blasio. “The NYPD is not in the business of making criminals out of people with no prior arrest history. We know that’s not productive.”
Studies have shown that black and white people use pot at roughly equal rates, but the NYPD noted in its working group report that no research has reached conclusions on the demographics of people who smoke in public.
O’Neill sent a message to all police officers Tuesday instructing them in the new policy but cautioning that the “announcement in no way makes marijuana use legal in New York City. That is a topic for our legislators, not our police department.”
New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said the racial disparity will not change until the law does.
“Substituting summonses for arrests is certainly an improvement, but not nearly enough to end counterproductive and discriminatory policing that has disproportionate and harmful impacts on communities of color,” she said. “For New York to achieve common sense criminal justice and public health policies we need to legalize marijuana at the state level.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he will soon launch a program to seal past marijuana convictions for people in the borough. He and the Manhattan District Attorney have already announced plans to stop prosecuting most pot smoking cases.
With Rocco Parascandola
