Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jul 2013
Source: Gainesville Sun, The (FL)
Copyright: 2013 The Gainesville Sun
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/yMmn4Ifw
Website: http://www.gainesville.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/163

WASTED RESOURCES

Alachua County wastes a shameful amount of time and money on 
small-time marijuana arrests.

A recent series in The Sun tallied some of those costs: Each arrest 
takes an officer off the streets for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. 
There are the costs of booking someone into the jail and the $122 a 
day expense of keeping them there.

It costs about $21 an hour for a local misdemeanor prosecutor to work 
the cases, which account for as much as 8 percent of their workload. 
There's an additional fiscal toll if a public defender is involved.

Then there are the costs for the person who's arrested: One 
University of Florida student told The Sun that a misdemeanor 
marijuana charge cost him about $3,000, including bail and court 
fees. Now he's running into problems applying for jobs with an arrest 
on his record.

It's all to crack down on a drug with such widespread use that even 
Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell admits to smoking it during 
college. As long as they haven't used marijuana within two years, she 
hires deputies and other employees who have smoked.

So why isn't Darnell open to changing her deputies' approach to 
marijuana cases?

In Florida, possession of 20 grams or less is a misdemeanor offense. 
Law enforcement agencies can choose to arrest and jail offenders or 
give them a notice to appear later in court -- the latter being more 
like a ticket and without some of the front-end costs.

Both the local state attorney and public defender told The Sun that 
people caught with a small amount of marijuana shouldn't be jailed. 
Gainesville and UF police already issue notices to appear rather than 
making arrests.

Yet the Alachua County Sheriff's Office issued only four notices in 
2012 as compared to more than 230 arrests in misdemeanor marijuana 
cases, according to County Commissioner Robert "Hutch" Hutchinson.

Hutchinson has proposed that the county reduce the amount of funding 
for the Sheriff's Office for each misdemeanor pot arrest. The 
commission lacks the authority to change marijuana laws, so it's 
understandable that Hutchinson would try to use its fiscal power to 
force change.

It's the right idea but the wrong approach, creating unnecessary 
confrontation. Local Fraternal Order of Police President Jeff McAdams 
has called it a "treacherous" plan. Darnell has also objected, saying 
she must enforce laws that are on the books.

But Darnell fails to acknowledge that she has discretion. The 
Sheriff's Office rarely enforces fireworks violations on Independence 
Day and doesn't enforce the airboat noise ordinance because it lacks 
the means, spokesmen for her office recently told a local television station.

At the very least, Darnell should instruct her deputies to issue 
tickets rather than making arrests. Gainesville police took a similar 
step in 2005 with open container cases, following the bad publicity 
surrounding officers cuffing and booking out-of-town fans caught on 
the streets with open cans of beer.

Better yet, Darnell should take the additional step of clearly 
telling her deputies that misdemeanor marijuana possession is not a priority.

If she's worried about having enough money in her budget to deal with 
serious issues such as sexual predators, then cutting the wasteful 
cost of marijuana arrests can only help.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom