Via Shutterstock
Yesterday, Paul Zukerberg, a candidate in the April 23 D.C. Council special election, shared with DCist his findings that the Metropolitan Police Department and Metro Transit Police Department would not share the number of marijuana-related arrests they made in 2012.
All Zukerberg got tell from his records requests from MPD and Metro Transit Police was that arrests on pot charges are spiking in the District, with MPD making 4,445 marijuana-related arrests in 2009, 5,280 in 2010, and 5,759 in 2011. But when it came to statistics for 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, Zukerberg was told an “upgrade” to the department’s records management system refused a query for marijuana-related arrests. The Metro Transit Police Department, meanwhile, doesn’t even post drug arrests on its public crime reports. A Metro spokesman told DCist yesterday that transit cops made 161 drug busts in 2012, and that a majority—though unspecified number—were fore weed.
But while MPD and Metro Transit Police were opaque, the U.S. Park Police at least provided a bit more transparency. Responding to another Freedom of Information Act request by Zukerberg’s campaign, Park Police reported making 1,093 arrests on marijuana charges in the Washington metropolitan area over the three-year period between 2010 and 2012, 638 of which occurred on federal parkland inside the District.
Park Police have jurisdiction over many large sections of federal land inside the District, including the National Mall, Haine’s Point, Rock Creek Park, Meridian Hill Park, Anacostia Park, and Fort Dupont, along with the the islands of many traffic circles and other smaller sites scattered throughout the city.
Inside the District, Park Police officers made 181 marijuana-related arrests in 2010, 225 in 2011, and 232 in 2012, according to department records obtained by Zukerberg and shared with DCist. Nearly all arrests were for possession, with a few each year on charges of possession with intent to distribute.
Zukerberg, a criminal defense attorney, is also an outspoken marijuana policy reform advocate, and is making decriminalization the centerpiece of his platform. During a debate yesterday with the other candidates for an At-Large seat on the Council, Zukerberg, a Democrat, said police are arresting twice as many young people on simple marijuana possession charges than the number of high-school graduates D.C. Public Schools produce.