The proposed ordinance was voted down for the second time in two years, the LRPD chief called it "unnecessary."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The City of Little Rock has once again voted not to rewrite the way police officers handle marijuana possession.

For the second year in a row, the city’s board of directors voted down a proposed ordinance to make marijuana possession the lowest priority for police officers and prosecutors.

Five members voted against the ordinance brought by Ken Richardson, while four voted in favor.

“I’ve heard that this is an approach, but I haven’t seen anything in writing,” Richardson said during Tuesday night’s board meeting, “so, to me, if we don’t have anything in writing and it’s an approach, you can selectively enforce this.”

The ordinance would have applied to adults, and in cases in which the person was not driving or committing any other crimes.

Richardson claimed that, while marijuana use is consistent across races, racial minorities are more likely to be arrested for possession than Caucasians.

“It impacts your ability to also get employment, and sometimes even housing. And we all know those are some of the precursors to criminal activity that maturate to violent crime. And we constantly say public safety is our number one priority up here, but yet, sometimes, we’d be willing to tolerate the conditions that produce criminal activity.”

Kenny Grand told the board members that he supported the proposed ordinance. He told them about getting arrested in college and the impact it had on his life. He explained that he was the first person in his family in several generations to go to college. In 2005, he was caught with a small amount of marijuana when a friend, who Grand said was high on opiates, was pulled over while driving and the officer searched everyone in their car.

“That person went home. I was chained to a bench for 18 hours,” he recalled. “And the next day, I got out and realized that I was ineligible for Pell Grants. So, essentially, being caught a small possession charge of marijuana made it to where I could no longer go to school.”

The number of people arrested in Little Rock for marijuana possession was relatively steady for the first part of this decade, averaging 441 arrests per year between 2010-2015 according to data reported by Little Rock Police Department to the Arkansas Crime Information Center. But that number jumped to 763 in 2016, 802 in 2017, and 848 in 2018.

Police Chief Keith Humphrey said he should not be judged on what happened before he got the job. “I’m not seeing that big push now,” he told Richardson. “I’m seeing more citations, I’m seeing more cite-and-releases, and I’m seeing more, ‘hey, just go home.’ I’m seeing more of that.”

Humphrey argued against the ordinance, though he added several times that he would do whatever the board members wanted. He said the department already chose not to focus on marijuana possession, instead putting its time and energy into reducing violent crime. “Right now, we’re sitting on a six percent decrease in violent crime and a decrease in overall crime,” he said. “So, apparently, we have been putting our resources somewhere else.”

Richardson brought a similar ordinance before the board in 2018, which was voted down by a larger margin. Kenton Buckner, the police chief at the time, also said he did not believe the ordinance was necessary.

“Since our ordinance was defeated,” Richardson stated, “Oklahoma City, New York City, Jacksonville, Arkansas: they’ve all passed similar approaches to address this issue.”

Humphrey said he understood Richardson’s concerns, especially as they related to the impact drug arrests have on minority communities.

“My concern, by making this an ordinance,” Humphrey said, “is that there’s going to be people in the community that are not going to read this ordinance completely, and they’re gonna say—they’re gonna believe—that this is carte blanche for them to smoke marijuana.

“And then you’re gonna look at the number of complaints that are gonna come in, I believe because you’re gonna citizens that are gonna say, ‘well, you said you weren’t gonna arrest us.’”

“I hate when people—I’m not decriminalizing, I’m not legalizing the smoking of marijuana,” Richardson responded.

Humphrey also argued that writing this policy into law would hamper his officers’ ability to do their jobs. “Because officers do have discretion,” he stated. “You never want to take those discretions away from officers. However, you hope and pray, as a police chief, that the officers will follow the rules of the law.”