Smoking Pot In NYC Will Still Get Some Arrested Under New Policy

NEW YORK, NY — The NYPD plans to go easier on New Yorkers caught smoking marijuana in public, but lighting up will still get certain people cuffed, city officials said Tuesday.

Police will give criminal summonses instead of making arrests for most cases of public-pot smoking by Sept. 1. The new policy, developed over the last month by an NYPD working group, is expected to reduce marijuana arrests by more than half, Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said.

"We are convinced, after four years of sustained progress, that we can do this in a way that will continue to enhance public safety," de Blasio, a Democrat, said at a news conference.

But cops won't be so lenient in several circumstances. Any public pot smokers who lack identification or are on probation or parole will still face arrest, the city said, as will anyone with an existing criminal warrant or a "documented history of violence."

Cops will also arrest people whose smoking poses a "public safety risk," such as if they're toking and driving.

"The NYPD is not in the business of making criminals out of people with no prior arrest history," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

The new policy, which de Blasio first announced last month, will likely result in 10,000 fewer marijuana arrests, city officials said. There were about 19,000 such arrests last year, less than 17,000 of which were for public smoking.

Police have generally arrested people for public smoking under the NYPD's current policy, which has faced criticism for its disparate racial impact. Black and Hispanic people accounted for 86 percent of marijuana arrests last year despite research showing all races use the drug at similar rates.

De Blasio argued driving down marijuana arrests would "inherently" address the disparity in how the laws are enforced. Some 40 percent of people currently arrested for smoking pot had not been cuffed before, city officials said.

"Every time there's one fewer arrest, inherently it means someone's life is not affected as negatively, and we know overwhelmingly those arrests are people of color, particularly young men of color," de Blasio said.

But data suggests that's not necessarily true. Marijuana arrests fell 64 percent from 2010 to 2017, but black and Hispanic people have accounted for at least 84 percent of those arrests since 2011, according to figures published by Politico New York.

Skeptical advocates said the city's new pot policy would do little to fix the racial disparity or even make it worse. City Councilman Rory Lancman, the chairman of the Committee on the Justice System, said cops shouldn't arrest anyone for smoking marijuana at all.

"Marijuana enforcement has long been a key pillar of broken windows policing," Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York City Liberties Union, said in a statement. "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."

The shift was announced a day after the state health commissioner said a report commissioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo would recommend legalizing marijuana statewide. The Manhattan and Brooklyn district attorneys have previously pledged to limit prosecutions in marijuana cases.

De Blasio does not fully support marijuana legalization, but he's created a task force to prepare the city for it.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)