Last year, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton made headlines for taking real steps to decriminalize marijuana in the city, pledging to issue summonses for marijuana that operated like speeding tickets for amounts less than 25 grams and pledging to close a loophole by which people who were stopped and frisked could be given citations for displaying marijuana in public places. Data from the New York Post shows that while arrests have fallen, they still number in the tens of thousands and still occur largely on racial lines. According to Gothamist:
So far this year, the New York Post reports, marijuana arrests are down, but only 40 percent compared to the same period last year. State data show police made 18,120 arrests through October 20th, compared to 29,906 last year. Meanwhile, officers have written 13,081 marijuana tickets, which are $100 for the first offense and are treated like speeding tickets, so far this year, compared to 13,378 in all of last year.
As the Post outlines, officers in some predominately black and Latino neighborhoods still have a serious jones for marijuana arrests. Police at Jamaica and St. Albans, Queens's 113th Precinct, singled out in a Drug Policy Alliance report [pdf] last year for racially disproportionate arrests, continued to break out the cuffs for stoners this year, locking up 259 through September and ticketing just 79. Fordham, the Bronx's 52nd Precinct was alongside the 113th on the Alliance's list of the 20 precincts with the highest rates of marijuana arrests last year, and kept at it despite Bratton's call to tamp it down, arresting 720 through September and ticketing only 168.
While the New York Post reported the 40 percent drop in arrests as a sign of progress, some troublesome patterns still remain. People in Black and Latino neighborhoods still have a much higher risk of being arrested for simple possession or other offenses for which others are ticketed. For an ostensibly decriminalizing city, arrests still vastly outnumber tickets in general. While it’s only been a year, the fact that minority neighborhoods still face a disparate likelihood of arrest for marijuana indicates that one of the key purposes of decriminalization—to reduce disparities between whites and minorities in arrests—is not being met. Also, more data on collections activity for tickets and how often they turn into criminal charges, credit damages, or jail time will be important in assessing the true impact of New York’s marijuana law. If these disparities continue, as the evidence suggests they will, full legalization is also an option that could eliminate them.
