NYC bill requires the NYPD to post pot bust demographics

The NYPD would need to post an online “marijuana enforcement report” to track how different demographic groups and neighborhoods are policed, according to a City Council bill passed unanimously Thursday.

By a vote of 48 to 0, the council approved bill Intro. 605-A, which mandates reporting every quarter how many arrests and summonses are issued for low-level marijuana possession, broken down by race, gender, age, precinct, borough and the offense charged.

The legislation’s prime sponsor, City Councilman Steve Levin, said the statistics are needed to identify and stamp out disproportionate enforcement of the state’s marijuana prohibition.

While whites and racial minorities use marijuana at essentially the same rates, blacks and Latinos are arrested at about 10 times the rate of whites, according to a recent published report.

At a recent council hearing, lawmakers heard evidence that 86 percent of marijuana arrestees are black or Latino, far higher than the groups’ makeup of the population.

Levin called this disparity, which the NYPD attributes to general crime reports as well as nuisance complaints where officers are dispatched, “totally unacceptable.”

“There’s a lot of white people that smoke marijuana,” said Levin, a Democrat from Brooklyn who supports legalizing the drug, adding, “there should be zero” arrests.

While overall arrests have gone down during Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, the racial disparity persists regarding marijuana.

Under the legislation, the marijuana report would need to be posted on the NYPD’s website.

De Blasio’s press office did not immediately say whether he would sign the bill, which would take effect 60 days after being enacted.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), also said he supports the legalization.

In other legislative business, the council:

n Voted 47 to 1 to increase its budget, by $17 million, to about $81 million. Johnson said money would be used to fulfill a promise to help make the council more muscular in checking the mayor by hiring as many as 125 new personnel.

n Delivered a proclamation to the family of Emmanuel Mensah, a hero soldier who died in December while rescuing neighbors trapped in a Bronx fire that killed 13 people. The blaze had been started by a child playing with his family’s stove.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.