Impact of New Marijuana Ordinance Difficult to Predict Without Data
Tracy Siska, at the Chicago Just Project, evaluates the Chicago Cannabis Ordinance (pdf), the “Pot Ticket” law that just passed Chicago’s City Council. Most importantly, he points out, there’s no way to predict the law’s impact because we have so little data on how the current laws are enforced and adjudicated.
Siska writes:
To judge how this new option is working versus the old way of “arrest only,” it is imperative that we have access to the right data sets that will allow us to do the analysis in a valid & reliable manner. The major problem is that we are currently without the access we need to the data sets to judge the arrest-only practices of the Chicago Police Department. Simply put we need access to case level data from both the police and prosecutors to be able to judge the current practices versus the new practices. Absent this access, we are going to have to rely on press releases from the agencies about how the practices are working. That is not in anyone’s best interests.
Some facts worth considering on the disparities that currently exist in the arrest only practices of the CPD. Now, I am not certain at all that this disparity will diminish because of this new ordinance. I certainly hope it does but I fail to see language that will affect it.
In developing our latest Diversion Strategies (pdf) report, we encountered similar obstacles. It is difficult and not even advisable to recommend policy changes without access to accurate, robust information about the status quo. Our criminal justice system’s opaqueness, in other words, is a primary obstacle to improving it.
That’s why Strategy #7 is: Develop a centralized and independent data collection system to lay the groundwork for using evidence-based practice approaches.