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Here's a follow up article that examines just what kind of cases we're talking about.

Cop's Pot Ticket Idea Merits a Trial Run

Source: Daily Southtown

Chicago police officers are wasting a lot of their time and the taxpayers' money on misdemeanor marijuana cases. That was the central point last week of a pitch made by police Sgt. Thomas Donegan to his boss, Supt. Phil Crane. Donegan submitted some statistics to the superintendent, analyzing the outcome of misdemeanor possession cases involving 30 grams or less. For readers who don't have a metric conversion chart at hand, 28 grams is an ounce.

Here's what Donegan told Cline: 94 percent of cases involving less than 2.5 grams of pot got dropped last year because prosecutors didn't think they were worth pursuing, or there was something wrong with the arrest, or because the arresting officer didn't show up in court. In cases involving between 2.5 and 10 grams, 81 percent were dropped. Fifty-two percent of cases involving between 10 and 30 grams were dropped.

Donegan told his boss it's a waste of time for police officers to arrest and book somebody who is almost certainly going to be let off, and it's a waste of money to have cops spending their time making such arrests and going to court to testify about them.

There were more than 20,000 arrests in Chicago last year involving 30 grams or less, and almost 7,000 of them centered on 2.5 grams or less.

Donegan suggested that the police department could save time and the city would probably make money if, rather than arresting people for possessing minimal amounts of marijuana, police were allowed to write them a ticket.

Proponents of a ticket system believe people would be inclined to pay a fine of $250, $500 or $1,000 rather than fight the charges, so police officers wouldn't have to go to court to testify. The proposal would result in more marijuana arrests ending in a legal sanction, and the city would gain revenue rather than waste it.

The village of Darien in the western suburbs has handled misdemeanor marijuana cases with tickets since the 1970s. Police officers there have the option of writing a ticket or making a misdemeanor arrest, depending on the circumstances.

We think it would make sense for Chicago to try something along the same lines. Mayor Richard Daley seemed to say last week that he liked the idea, although one of his spokesmen backed away from the proposal the same day.

Donegan's idea makes sense to us, although we think his schedule of fines is too high. Someone facing a $500 or $1,000 fine is not necessarily going to pay it to save an hour or two, and if people don't pay the fines, cops will be right back in court.

Daley, the police department and the state's attorney ought to sit down and talk about this proposal and figure out a way to give it at least a trial run.