Tickets for Cannabis Could Lead to More Cops on the Street

Hoping to get Chicago police more hours patrolling the streets, Ald. Danny Solis(25th) Wednesday

introduced an ordinance that would give tickets and community service instead of jail time to people caught with small amounts of marijuana.

Solis said tickets from the ordinance could net the city up to $7 million. The announcement comes at a time when the mayor has proposed police budget cuts and shuttering four police stations.

“We think this is a solution to get more police man-hours into our neighborhoods,” said Solis at a pre-meeting press conference.

“Ald. Solis’s ordinance could lead to safer communities in Chicago, as well as positively impacting the budget,” said Dan Linn, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Each year, the Chicago Police Department spends around 84,000 hours of police time on drug arrests, Solis said.

Currently, police arresting low-level possession offenders have to go through a lengthy arrest and booking process at local police stations, Linn said.

But if officers were given the chance to write tickets instead, “they could take the five or 10 minutes it takes to write a ticket and then continue patrolling the streets,” Linn said.

As a practicing criminal attorney, Ald. Howard Brookins (21^st) said he sees first-hand the pipes of the justice system getting clogged by non-violent drug cases.

The halls of the Chicago criminal court building at 26th and California are lined with “scores and scores of police officers waiting to testify” in drug cases. Such waits are a waste of police time, Brookins said.

Around 85 percent of the city’s budget is made up of personnel costs, said Brookins, and the police department is one of the largest personnel divisions.

And it’s not just the police force getting swamped by non-violent drug cases. In a report by the Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice, the city’s judges are bogged down by non-violent drug cases.

As of 2007, over half of the criminal courts’ judges’ caseloads consist of non-violent drug cases and, “the volume of drug prosecutions is dealt with through assembly-line plea bargaining,” the report found.

“A criminal penalty accompanying a conviction for possession of small amounts of marijuana can lead to a lifetime of harsh consequences,” according to a Marijuana Policy Project report.

Since possession is a felony, a conviction can cause the loss of federal student aid, government housing benefits, and the ability to remain a licensed professional.

Linn worries that the proposed ordinance will continue to be unfair to disadvantaged minority groups who may not have the money to pay the projected $200 ticket.

“It’s a tough choice, whether you pay for the groceries or pay for a pot ticket,” said Linn. Furthermore, Linn points the irony that being unable to pay the ticket could still put some people behind bars.