Enforcement of marijuana laws varies in North Jersey. Here’s the arrest rate in your town

The law is the law and if the state attorney general stops prosecuting marijuana cases, or the state Legislature goes so far as to legalize the drug, North Jersey police chiefs say their officers will comply with those changes.

Their job isn’t to make laws, just to carry them out, they say.

But in a region where marijuana arrest rates vary widely, police chiefs in municipalities that focus most on those offenses predict that relaxing the law could increase instead of ease officers’ workloads if pot use rises.

“We don’t make law. We follow whatever the state legislature and the attorney general directions that we get,” Chief Jeremy Abrams, of the Montvale police, said. But legalizing pot “could increase the amount of time officers spend on marijuana-related issues if people use it more.”

Legalizing marijuana, police chiefs say, could lead to more people driving or causing other problems while under the influence. The state attorney general has suspended marijuana prosecutions until early September while the state Legislature figures out whether, or how much, to modify the laws.

More: Change to legal weed in NJ could leave future hazy for police K-9s

Chief Donald Martin, of the Edgewater police, raised similar concerns, noting the possibility that people smoking marijuana on the streets could disturb others.

“What if a woman is walking down the sidewalk and someone is smoking marijuana, and she has a small child?” he said. “I think we could get a lot more complaints about things like that.”

Those speculations come at a time when some North Jersey law enforcement agencies enforce current laws at 10 to 20 times the rate of others.

Montvale, for example, made 432 marijuana-related arrests from 2010 through 2016, according to an analysis by The Record of  FBI data. That translated into 80 arrests per 10,000 residents. Edgewater, meanwhile, arrested 569 people for pot violations, for a rate of 73 per 10,000 residents. Those numbers were more than double the statewide rate of 33 per 10,000.

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A majority of those cases were for low-level possession of less than 50 grams, or a little less than two ounces, an offense that generally results in a fine of around $850, according to the state Administrative Office of the Courts.

Other communities, ranging from upscale and middle-class suburban communities to more-urban towns, stood out as even more vigilant in pursuing tens of thousands of pot users and dealers.

The North Jersey leader was Morris County’s Mendham Township, home to former Gov. Chris Christie and one of the wealthiest communities in New Jersey. There, the rate was 198 per 10,000 residents.  Others that arrested marijuana users and sellers at more than twice the statewide rate included upscale Chester and Harding townships in Morris County and more-blue-collar Hackensack, South Hackensack and Rochelle Park in Bergen County.

Passaic County’s leader was Haledon, with 59 per 10,000, while mansion-dotted Essex Fells had the top rate in Essex County, 56.

In the highest-enforcement towns, marijuana offenses account for up to half of all arrests.

Other police departments, however, have far smaller arrest rates. Sprinkled among low-, middle- and high-income places, they include Fairview, Bergenfield, Demarest, Wallington and Washington Township in Bergen County; West Caldwell and North Caldwell in Essex County; Chatham Township, Randolph and Parsippany-Troy Hills in Morris County; and North Haledon and Woodland Park in Passaic County.

All had marijuana arrest rates of less than 15 per 10,000. Pot busts accounted for no more than 20 percent of their arrests.

All told, law enforcement agencies in Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic counties made 72,853 arrests for marijuana law violations from 2010 to 2016, the analysis found. Those included 61,825 for possession and 11,028 for selling.

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Should those users and sellers face less sanctions, or none all, North Jersey police chiefs say they worry about the long-term impact, especially on the roads.

“I have utmost respect for the attorney general. If he says it, we do it,” Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli said about changes in the law. “But what will be the message in five years when there is an increase in roadway fatalities? What’s going to be the response?”

Beyond that, he said, legalization in New Jersey could lead to a black market for people coming in from other states where pot remains illegal.

“There are a lot of ifs,” Batelli said. But “we think it’s the wrong direction for the state of New Jersey and the wrong direction for the country.”

 

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