Pot-user leniency proposed

LR director’s bid draws opposition

The Little Rock Board of Directors is set to decide next week whether to make misdemeanor marijuana-possession arrests the lowest priority of the Police Department, and the police chief isn’t supportive.

City Director Ken Richardson introduced the ordinance that appeared on the board’s agenda for discussion Tuesday. City directors will vote on the proposal next Tuesday.

The ordinance says low-level marijuana charges clog court dockets, fill jail cells needed to hold dangerous individuals, and often result in the loss of employment and educational opportunities for the offender.

“It’s not legitimizing it, not de-criminalizing it, not legalizing it, it’s lowering it on the list of priority for our Little Rock Police Department, and I’ve been told that’s our current approach by a number of people,” Richardson said Tuesday.

Police Chief Kenton Buckner said the department already treats simple marijuana possession as a low priority in practice because it has more important and violent crimes to focus on, but he said putting that policy in writing would be detrimental to the city’s safety.

For example, Buckner said, officers often search vehicles once they smell marijuana, because that gives them probable cause. Such searches many times uncover more serious criminal violations that lead to arrests on the bigger charges, Buckner said.

If officers were forced to ignore the marijuana possession, he said, they would miss out on stopping a more serious crime.

Buckner also said any adult arrested solely on a misdemeanor marijuana charge is taken to the jail, booked and then discharged without occupying a cell.

“I challenge you to find anyone sitting in the Pulaski County jail today solely for use of marijuana. You can’t even get people in the jail for nonviolent felonies. Felonies. Think about what I just said. So it’s a low priority for us, I promise you that,” Buckner said.

Last year, the Little Rock Police Department made 824 marijuana-possession arrests, according to the department. That includes both misdemeanor and felony offenses. The department’s records management system does not distinguish between the levels.

Richardson’s ordinance would only make misdemeanor offenses a low priority.

Such arrests have nearly doubled since 2013.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015, such arrests totaled between 390 and 460, but they jumped to 768 in 2016 and more than 800 last year.

Two Arkansas cities already have low-priority enforcement policies. Eureka Springs voters approved a ballot initiative in 2006. Then in 2008, Fayetteville voters approved the same policy via the ballot.

Richardson modeled his proposed Little Rock ordinance after the Fayetteville measure.

The Fayetteville ordinance noted that there were 402 marijuana arrests in that city in 2005. Possession arrests have increased since then, jumping to 691 such arrests last year, according to Fayetteville Police Department data.

Those numbers include both felony and misdemeanor cases; the city’s low-priority policy only applies to the lower-level charges.

Fayetteville officers do not specifically target misdemeanor marijuana offenders, but they don’t overlook marijuana offenses when they come across them either, Police Department spokesman Sgt. Anthony Murphy said earlier this year.

“Officers still arrest people

and, in most misdemeanor cases, they issue that person a citation,” Murphy said.

At least 15 other cities in the United States have adopted low-priority policies in regards to marijuana possession. About half of them are in states that have since legalized marijuana completely.

Most of the cities adopted the policies through voter initiatives. Only two have done it the way Richardson is proposing — through a vote by elected officials. They are San Francisco and West Hollywood, Calif., both in 2006.

If the Little Rock Board of Directors passes Richardson’s ordinance, it cannot direct the prosecuting attorney to cease prosecution of misdemeanor arrests.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said Tuesday that the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney has told him he is not supportive of the proposed ordinance.

Stodola, a former prosecutor, took issue with the ordinance, saying it would tell police officers to ignore the oath they took to uphold the law.

Richardson disagreed, saying the city could make a policy for officers to cite people for marijuana possession rather than arrest them.