Pot arrests drop sharply ahead of legalization
Change in state law, attitudes spur dip in 5 largest suburbs
Years before Illinois lawmakers moved to legalize recreational marijuana, police in the largest suburban communities were already making far fewer arrests for crimes such as possession and manufacture of cannabis, police department data shows.
Arrests for marijuana-related crimes dropped by between 63% and roughly 80% from 2015 to 2018 in the five largest suburbs — Aurora, Naperville, Elgin, Joliet and Waukegan, most of which include neighborhoods deemed by the state to have a high number of such arrests in the first place. The numbers through October project another decrease in 2019.
A 2016 change in state law to issue citations instead of arrests for small amounts of marijuana is a major contributor to the decline. But the decrease is also a reflection of changing attitudes toward marijuana and, in some cases, shifting police priorities well before state lawmakers moved to legalize weed in May, some authorities said.
Though possessing and using certain amounts of marijuana will become legal in Illinois on Jan. 1, one police official said he wouldn’t expect to see a seismic change in marijuana enforcement even after it becomes legal. Many marijuana arrests made by Joliet police already come during traffic stops, and in some circumstances, those still will be enforceable, Sgt. Christopher Botzum said.
Enforcement of the new law is a concern for the ACLU, Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois branch of the organization, said. The ACLU highlighted racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests in a 2013 report, and remains concerned that there could continue to be disparities as police enforce provisions of the new law that, while legalizing recreational marijuana, still put restrictions on consumption of marijuana in public, transportation of marijuana and other areas, he said.
“This all has a really, really great chance to be beneficial for people all across the state of Illinois, and cut off a vehicle or means of accessing or interacting with the criminal justice system for many people,” he said. “So, one’s hopeful that that transition process is as smooth as possible. But it is, after all, a transition process, so one doesn’t know.”
The recent drop in arrests in the largest suburban cities mirrors a statewide drop. But it comes after a decadeslong increase in marijuana arrests, which have made up the majority of all drug arrests in recent years, particularly in communities in the northern part of the state, excluding those in Cook County, according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.
Police in several suburbs attributed the drop to a 2016 state law that decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, meaning those caught with 10 grams or less would face a citation similar to a traffic ticket rather than the possibility of jail time.
Steven Stelter, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said the change in the law made it harder for police to do their jobs.
“We arrest somebody for marijuana, and the courts just throw it out because they look at it as just a real minor offense,” he said.
Though Stelter and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police continue to oppose legalization of marijuana, he said a drop in arrests didn’t surprise him. The mindset in Illinois has changed since marijuana became legal elsewhere, he said.
“The real mindset is, ‘What’s the big deal?’ ” he said.
Kenny Myles has seen that change firsthand.
Myles, who lives in Montgomery, said he was arrested in 2007 by a northwest suburban police department and ultimately charged with possession of seven grams of marijuana, a misdemeanor, and with manufacture with intent to deliver of more than 200 grams, a felony.
The arrest had a significant effect on Myles’ life. He said he lost his job when his bosses found out about the felony charge, and he couldn’t rent an apartment because he couldn’t pass a background check. He was about halfway through college at the time, but lost his federal financial aid because of the conviction and had to quit school for several years.
Myles, though, said he saw a change in public and law enforcement attitudes toward marijuana after that. In one example, he said roughly three years after his suburban arrest, he was caught smoking weed by Chicago police, who elected not to pursue any charges.
“I can tell the attitude as a whole community has changed,” he said. “Me, having my run-ins, I’m still a little bit more shy to do certain things. But I do see it shifting.”
Myles eventually found a job and finished his undergraduate degree and went on to get a master’s degree in accounting. He, his wife and a business partner are now in the process of applying to open a marijuana dispensary in Aurora.
Though his manufacture charge was eventually expunged under the terms of his plea, the possession charge remains on his record and allows him to qualify as a social equity applicant for a dispensary license, he said.
The new law gives extra weight to social equity applicants, who must meet one of three criteria. That includes having a prior charge that would be eligible for expungement under the legalization law, such as
Myles’, or living in a community deemed disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs because of its high marijuana-arrest rate or rate of people released from prison who had been charged with certain marijuana crimes.
Parts of Aurora, Joliet, Waukegan and Elgin have been identified by the state as having these high arrest or incarceration rates since 2009, though no Naperville census tracts were identified.
Of those five communities, arrests in Joliet dropped by 79% between 2015 and 2018 and in Elgin by 74%. In Aurora, they dropped by 69%, and in Waukegan, they dropped by 63%, a newspaper analysis of police department data shows.
Reporters requested data from each city’s police department about arrests related to marijuana possession, delivery, manufacture and other crimes. The numbers each department provided showed in Joliet, arrests dropped from 233 in 2015 to 49 in 2018, and in Elgin, they dropped from 252 to 66 over the same period.
In Aurora, the state’s second largest city, arrests dropped from 659 in 2015 to 202 in 2018, police department data shows. In Waukegan, they dropped from 201 to 74.
Conservative figures show marijuana arrests in Naperville dropped from 260 in 2015 to 42 in 2018. Those numbers show Naperville arrests dropped by nearly 84%, but police officials cautioned the figures could vary due to the nature of how arrests are classified.
Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall attributed the drop to the 2016 change in state law, and said that and other actions by the courts sent a clear message on marijuana. As a result, Naperville officers started writing fewer city tickets for small amounts of marijuana, and excluding drug paraphernalia charges.
Aurora police Cmdr. Jack Fichtel said he recalled, from his time working on the street, that most people had “personal use” amounts of marijuana below 10 grams, so when the state decriminalized small amounts of marijuana police were no longer making those arrests. Around the same time, police saw an increase in the use of opioids, he said. Seeking to address public health concerns, Aurora police put more emphasis on opioids and related drugs, he said.
“There was definitely a shift,” he said. “And, I think, society and culture, you don’t hear about cannabis as you do opioids and heroin.”
In Joliet, Botzum said police haven’t changed the way they focus on crime, and they haven’t seen a drop in marijuana use, though arrests are down.
“There hasn’t been a concentrated effort to sit there and look at cannabis differently,” he said. “It’s just applying what the law states.”
While Elgin, like Joliet and Aurora, attributed part of its drop in arrests to the state’s decriminalization, Cmdr. Adam Schuessler said the decline there is also attributable to a 2015 Cook County decision to stop prosecuting certain low-level marijuana offenses. About a third of Elgin is in Cook County.
Waukegan police declined to say what they thought could be behind their drop or whether it could be due to the change in state law, saying they were “unable to interpret such trends in society.”
Police in many departments don’t expect arrests to be eliminated once recreational marijuana is legal. Schuessler anticipates focusing on drivers under the influence of weed and on youth vaping. Fichtel said he expects to find customers seeking to bypass dispensaries and taxes and instead buy marijuana on the black market.
“There’s going to be a lot of issues,” he said. “You look at other states and they’ve had a few things that they didn’t anticipate. We’re trying to read from what happened to them, so we are able to not reinvent the wheel.”