AR Times: “On May 18, the Little Rock Board of Directors approved a city ordinance that designated misdemeanor marijuana offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement. At the meeting, Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey told the city board that the ordinance would not have a material impact on the police department because it has already adopted an unofficial policy of deprioritizing marijuana offenses.
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However, publicly available information contradicts the chief’s claim. According to data retrieved from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer by the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, the lowest-level marijuana offenders were given a citation in fewer than half of arrests in Little Rock in 2019. Most arrests seem to have resulted in offenders being physically apprehended by an officer and taken to jail, even in the absence of other crimes.
In 2019, 322 out of 833 marjuana arrests in Little Rock were for possession alone, involved less than one ounce of marijuana, and did not involve any other type of drug or other criminal offense. Every arrest in the FBI dataset is labeled as one of three types: a citation, an apprehension on a warrant, or an “on view” arrest. An “on view” arrest means the officer found probable cause to apprehend the person without a warrant. Only about 39% of these 322 lowest-level marijuana possession arrests resulted in a citation. In about 11%, a warrant was involved. The majority, just over 50%, were “on view” arrests.”