The NYPD has killed the marijuana “buy-and-bust.”
The crime-fighting staple that often led to gun seizures and arrests on outstanding warrants was axed in a desperate attempt by the de Blasio administration to regain dwindling support from minorities, sources told The Post.
The head of each borough’s narcotics unit was summoned to 1 Police Plaza last week and told, “The powers that be don’t want to see any more of these [pot] arrests,” sources said.
An angry source called it a calculated move by city leaders.
“Of course, this comes from City Hall and [Mayor Bill] de Blasio. This is all about arresting minorities, and this is just one way to arrest less minorities,’’ the source said.
De Blasio is under increased pressure from leaders in minority communities. He promised last year on the campaign trail to curb pot busts, saying they have “disastrous consequences’’ on minority suspects and their relations with police.
Blacks and Hispanics have accounted for 86 percent of low-level pot busts this year, and the rate of minority drug arrests is on pace to potentially exceed the numbers under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
A report late last month by the Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Arrest Research Project showed that the number of pot busts citywide hasn’t changed since de Blasio took office — and even increased for at least the six-month period between March and August.
And there were even more blacks and Latinos arrested for the crime during those months.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,’’ a source said, referring to the report and the new edict.
At the meeting, Chief of Narcotics Brian McCarthy told the commanders to shift their attention to more potent drugs.
“We have to focus on controlled substances,’’ he said, according to sources. “There’s a pill and heroin problem in the city, and we have to focus on that.”
The powers that be don’t want to see any more of these [pot] arrests … This is all about arresting minorities, and this is just one way to arrest less minorities.
- A source
The move seems to go against Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s own “broken windows’’ approach to crime, which targets low-level suspects to root out bigger crime.
“With marijuana arrests, lots of times, you’ll find a guy with a gun or something else illegal on him,’’ a source said.
Also, once the suspect is booked, police have his fingerprints and photo on file — “so it can help later on if they commit another crime. They have it now on record.”
Sources also cited a lack of prosecution of marijuana suspects as another reason not to pursue the busts.
“Especially in Brooklyn and The Bronx, the DAs are soft on punishment. Nobody’s going to jail,” a source said. “At worst, they’re going for treatment.
“So basically, we’re wasting time and manpower, and cops are putting themselves in harm’s way for nothing.’’
Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins seethed, “If the current practice of making arrests for both possession and sale of marijuana is, in fact, abandoned, then this is clearly the beginning of the breakdown of a civilized society.
“It’s counterproductive to the broken-windows theory. If we’re not making marijuana arrests, then we may not pop someone who has a warrant on them or who committed felony crimes,’’ he said.
“If the department doesn’t want us to make marijuana arrests, they should introduce legislation to change the law.”