Chicago Police More Likely To Arrest People For Marijuana Than Ticket Them
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 19, 2014 6:00PM
Chicago Police either didn’t get or ignored the memo on ticketing people holding small amounts of cannabis. A study released Monday by the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University shows a vast majority of misdemeanor pot busts in Chicago still result in arrests.
The report shows that 93 percent of misdemeanor marijuana possession violations still result in an arrest in Chicago. That means, despite having the option to issue tickets and fine those found holding. This means, despite having an easier option at their disposal, police still opt to arrest offenders. This was not what was envisioned when the Chicago City Council overwhelmingly approved a 2012 ordinance granting police the option of ticketing and fining people holding small amounts of cannabis.
The overall amount of misdemeanor pot possession arrests in Chicago are down, as well, but at 21 percent, Chicago has the smallest decrease of the Illinois cities studied in the survey. Kathie Kane-Willis, the director of the consortium, told the Sun-Times this signals “a really big disconnect between the policy and the practice.”
CPD spokesman Adam Collins said the department is working to streamline the process.
“Like any new process, it has taken time to implement the ordinance, and we believe there’s certainly much more work to be done on full implementation.”
Maybe CPD should reach out to Evanston for some tips on how to implement the ordinance. Although enforcing misdemeanor marijuana possession ordinances across the state appear arbitrary in the study, Kane-Willis said Evanston has done the best in enforcing theirs. Police in the northern suburb issued 261 tickets and arrested 115 people for possessing small amounts of pot. To date in 2014, those numbers are 55 tickets and 29 arrests, respectively. Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said “more often than not a ticket is the appropriate response.
Chicago’s pot ticketing ordinance allows police the option to write tickets to people found holding 15 grams or less of marijuana ranging from $250 - $500. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and supporters of the ordinance stressed having the option of ticketing would keep police on the street and fight more violent crimes.