Summary

New York City police arrest more people for possessing small amounts of marijuana in public view than for any other offense. Between 1996 and 2011, police made more than half-a-million (586,320) arrests for this misdemeanor, including a total of around 100,000 in just the 2 years of 2010 and 2011. Most arrests for plain-view marijuana possession occur in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods. Arrestees are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

Neither New York City police nor Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ever provided a detailed justification for the high numbers of marijuana arrests, suggesting only that the arrests improve public safety. While the public safety benefits of many kinds of arrests are readily apparent, e.g. arrests of homicide suspects, the gains from arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana are less easy to discern. A more complete justification is warranted not only because the arrests disproportionately affect black and Hispanic city residents, but also because the sheer number of marijuana possession arrests consumes many scarce and expensive law enforcement and judicial resources.

When the police arrest someone for misdemeanor marijuana possession, they enter fingerprints and other identifying information into criminal databases.  Capturing this information might help police solve future serious crimes committed by the arrestees. Our data, however, indicates the police sweep large numbers of people into New York City’s criminal justice system—particularly young people of color—who do not subsequently engage in violent crime.

We tracked through mid-2011 the criminal records of nearly 30,000 people without prior criminal convictions who were arrested in 2003 and 2004 for marijuana possession. As shown in the figure below, we found that 3.1 percent of them were subsequently convicted of one violent felony offense during the six-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half years that our research covers; 0.4 percent had two or more violent felony convictions.[1] That is, 1,022 persons out of the nearly 30,000 we tracked had subsequent violent felony convictions. Ninety percent (26,315) had no subsequent felony convictions of any kind.

Curtailing crime—particularly violent or dangerous crime—is a legitimate and important public goal. But law enforcement efforts to enhance public safety by identifying those who engage in crime and holding them accountable through criminal prosecution, must be pursued through tactics that comply with human rights requirements. Respect for human rights requires that policing policy be grounded on objective evidence and criteria that are neither discriminatory nor arbitrary, and should not be unjustifiably restrictive or negatively impact rights in comparison to other policy options.

Allegations that police conduct marijuana possession arrests in an unlawful and arbitrary manner—without reasonable grounds to stop and frisk those they later arrest, and that they disproportionately arrest blacks and Hispanics for marijuana possession and other low-level crimes — are not only the subject of much controversy and litigation, but they also raise serious human rights concerns. Racial disparities in marijuana arrests do not automatically mean the police have engaged in racial discrimination that is prohibited under international human rights law. Unwarranted racial disparities, however, may constitute such discrimination even in the absence of racist intent. Human rights based concerns are thus heightened by the failure of the police to offer a detailed rationale for the marijuana policing policy, the objective criteria on which the arrests are based, and empirical evidence that they contribute to public safety.

An explanation is also warranted because the costs—both financial and social—of the marijuana arrests are substantial. Precious law enforcement resources are expended making, processing, and booking tens of thousands of marijuana possession arrests each year. Goodwill toward law enforcement may be eroded when substantial numbers of community residents are arrested or witness friends and relatives arrested for marijuana possession, especially when they believe the police had no basis for approaching them in the first place. This goodwill is especially important in high crime neighborhoods where relationships with community members are often vital for solving or preventing serious crimes and for gathering information to deal with persistent crime.[2]

Overworked prosecutors with more serious offenses in their caseloads demanding attention, equally overburdened public defenders charged with providing adequate defense to every accused person, and criminal court personnel (including judges, clerks, and court officers), all suffer under dockets swollen from the marijuana arrests along with the more than 200,000 other misdemeanor cases that flow through the city’s courts each year.[3]

Marijuana arrests also have significant implications for the tens of thousands of New York City residents who endure the discomfort and humiliation of being handcuffed, booked and searched, spending one or two days in police holding cells and central bookings, going through arraignment, and perhaps even being required to endure pretrial detention.[4] As Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has stated, referring to people arrested for criminal possession of marijuana in public view, “The human cost to each one of these people and their families is serious and it is real.”[5]

Those who are convicted of marijuana possession also face the prospect of limited opportunities for employment, access to public housing, and other benefits, in addition to threatened child custody and immigration status. Indeed, people arrested for marijuana possession may suffer even if they are never convicted or if they have their cases dismissed because prospective employers, schools, and housing authorities often ask individuals about arrests. [6] As Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries has said, “For years, thousands of New Yorkers, who are disproportionately Black and Latino youth, have been charged with unnecessary misdemeanors, thereby creating barriers for future employment … [and] permanent damage on their records.” [7]

In June 2012, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced legislation to make possession of marijuana in public view a non-arrestable, non-criminal violation, like a parking ticket (smoking marijuana in public would remain a misdemeanor).[8] Although there was considerable support for the legislative effort, conservative opposition killed it. Significantly, however, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the five district attorneys for New York City, and even the New York City police commissioner all supported the legislation.[9]Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the “new law will allow us to redirect resources away from processing people charged with simple low-level possession of marijuana, and use those valuable resources to fight violent crime to make all our communities safer, and thereby enhance public safety.”[10] Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said that the Cuomo proposal would “lead to a more efficient use of law enforcement resources.”[11] This support for classifying possession of marijuana in public view as a non-criminal violation heightens the need for an explanation from New York City officials for how ongoing marijuana possession misdemeanor arrests contribute to public safety.