NY to end marijuana arrests for most people

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department plans to slash arrests for publicly smoking marijuana by more than half and give people tickets instead, but will keep arresting some of those who have past arrests or convictions, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

The changes come amid strong signals from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration that it will push to legalize marijuana across New York state. But with any new legislation months away, and De Blasio facing mounting pressure to address a steep racial disparity in marijuana arrests, the city took another step Tuesday toward shrinking a pool of arrests that no longer exists in some states.

The new policy, which will take effect Sept. 1, will not curb police officers’ power to stop and search people who they think are smoking marijuana. And because it exempts from the no-arrest policy certain people with criminal records, many of them black, it is unlikely on its own to shift the focus of marijuana enforcement away from the nonwhite New Yorkers who have for decades been the targets of arrests.

People caught smoking marijuana in public will still be handcuffed and taken to a police station house for fingerprinting if they have been arrested in connection with a violent crime in the last three years, are on probation or parole or have an open arrest warrant.

Around 17,500 people are arrested each year on marijuana possession charges in New York City, but De Blasio said about 10,000 of those arrests would be eliminated and replaced with criminal summonses under the new policy. –