Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2013
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Fran Spielman and Frank Main
Page: 10

POT TICKETS A BUST

Chicago Police issued just 1,117 tickets for small amounts of
marijuana in the first 14 months of decriminalization - and the
cash-strapped city has collected only 21 percent of the $310,755 in
fines, records show.

"The ticketing process is an administrative pain in the butt. It's so
much easier to do a marijuana arrest the old-fashioned way" or just
let it go, said Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields.

The sobering news that pot tickets have been a bust is tucked away in
the 2014 Budget Overview for the city's Department of Administrative
Hearings.

 From Aug. 4, 2012, the day ticketing began, through Sept. 24 of this
year, police issued just 1,117 tickets. Defendants were found liable
in 832, or 81 percent, of the 1,035 cases resolved.

City hearing officers have assessed $310,755 in penalties, but only
$67,256, or 21 percent, of those fines have been collected. That's a
drop in the bucket compared to the $1 million that proponents
predicted the city would easily collect in just one year.

The mayor's office didn't respond to questions about the low
collection rate for fines. But historically, the city has had a tough
time collecting for similar administrative fines ranging from loud
noise to fly dumping. In the case of pot tickets, the person may be
thumbing their nose at the fine or doesn't have the wherewithal to pay
it.

Although the ratio of minor pot arrests to tickets is about 10-to-1,
officers are making fewer arrests than last year.

There were 11,699 pot arrests from Jan. 1 to Aug. 3, 2012, compared
with 9,269 over the same period this year - a 21 percent drop.

For Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the ordinance he championed has come
nowhere close to his goal of putting officers on the street for the
equivalent of 2,500 additional eight-hour days.

Adam Collins, a police spokesman, pointed out that the pot-ticketing
ordinance bars officers from writing tickets in parks and in other
situations. "There are many circumstances in which an arrest is
mandatory," he said.

Collins added: "If you do the math, replacing the four-hour arrest
process (two officers in a beat car who take two hours to process a
pot arrest) with a 40-minute ticketing process has saved us an
estimated 3,860 man hours."

But Solis said Thursday he's so disappointed about the results, he's
arranged a meeting with police Supt. Garry McCarthy to find ways to
convince officers to "take it more seriously" and write more tickets.

"I thought police would accept it more because they wouldn't have to
go through the process of arresting and booking somebody. I thought
the free time they would get would have them more on the streets and
in our neighborhoods. I also thought it would generate some revenue
the city really needs," Solis said.

Shields said the ordinance approved by an emotionally torn City
Council has too many strings attached and too much bureaucratic red
tape.

In order to write pot tickets, officers have to be field-test
qualified or summon someone who is. They have to return to the station
to inventory the marijuana, the field test kit and the field test
affidavit - even if the results are negative.

There are also a host of conditions governing which offenders are
eligible for pot tickets. It's only those with no concurrent charges,
a verifiable ID and less than 15 grams of marijuana that is not
packaged for delivery. Offenders caught smoking on Park District
property, near schools or in a motor vehicle are also ineligible.
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MAP posted-by: Matt