Thrown out of court  

Last week I was excoriating the mayor over his nefarious plans for omnipresent government. But this week I'm ready to sing His praises after he endorsed a Chicago Police sergent's proposal to more or less decriminalize posession of marijuana. Here's Daley talking around and about the issue:

“If 99 percent of the cases are all thrown out, and you have a police officer going -- why?” Daley said. “Why do we arrest the individual, seize the marijuana, [go] to court and they're all thrown out? ... It costs you a lot of money for that. It costs you a lot of money for police officers to go to court.

“Why is that happening? They say, ‘Well, we didn’t like the search. We didn’t like the arrest.’ It’s the same person we’re arresting every week. He has marijuana on him. And if you want to test him, he has marijuana in his system ... If 99 percent of the cases are thrown out, when is [there] a credible arrest for marijuana? What does the court want us to do with these individuals?

“It’s decriminalized now. They throw all the cases out. It doesn’t mean anything. You just show up to court. Another case goes out. That’s all it is. There’s nothing there. They don’t even show up -- the offenders. It doesn’t mean anything.

“Sometimes, a fine is worse than being thrown out of court. Thrown out of court means nothing. Maybe they don’t even have to show up. Many times, the offenders don’t even show up anyways. That’s what we have to look at.”

It's not perfect, but in some ways this is a big step forward. It solves enforcement problems with the tacit admission that enforcement is impossible, but it reserves the power to fine offenders as sly form of regulation. The penalties are clear, which means users can make informed choices instead of trying their luck with the courts. And of course it's good for the city's books -- the fines will bring in some revenue and the city can put its limited police resources somewhere else.

To be sure, there are a couple of problems with it. For one thing, I'm concerned that they can't get the charges to stick now. Does this mean they're taking some kind of inappropriate police action in arresting these individuals? And if so, won't giving cops the power to ticket people mean the courts have less oversight? Or, will offenders simply learn to contest their tickets? I guess I'm most worried that this will give police more power to harass certain groups. There are police cameras up in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city -- will these be used to hand out tickets?

I do think the initiative has a lot of promise though, and I like that Chicago is a city that's ready to try a new approach on this issue. I think what seemed to me at first to be a huge ideological difference between this policy and the cameras from last week actually has more to do with seeking ways to innovate. This can be a good thing.

(By the way, the Chicago Police sergent? It's a feel good story about innovation from the ranks of the CPD... and a well concealed Daley trial balloon. These are professionals!)