HANCOCK COUNTY — Law enforcement officials in Hancock County have no plans to follow the lead of Marion County and ease prosecution of marijuana laws, officials emphasized this week.
Earlier this week, the interim prosecutor in Marion County, Ryan Mears, said his office will no longer prosecute anyone who possesses less than one ounce of marijuana. Mears said the decision covers only “simple possession,” meaning people who carry one ounce or less will not face formal charges from here on out.
According to Indiana state law, possession of marijuana in an amount less than 30 grams can be prosecuted as a Level B Misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $1,000.
The change in policy in Marion County is aimed at helping prosecutors shuffle resources to pursue violent crimes such as murder and sexual assault, officials in Marion County said. Through Friday morning, Marion County had 110 homicides so far in 2019. In 2018, 159 homicides occurred.
Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton has a different take on the decision.
Officials in his office have agreed with Sheriff Brad Burkhart and Chief Jeff Rasche of the Greenfield Police Department that they took an oath to uphold the law in Indiana. That’s what they say they’re going to do.
“All of us agreed we don’t want to be in the business of picking and choosing parts of the criminal code that are right to be enforced and others that are not to be enforced,” Eaton said.
Eaton feels his office has a moral obligation and an expectation from the community to enforce the law. It’s an obligation, he said, that county law enforcement officials take seriously.
As long as marijuana remains illegal in Indiana, the move by the Marion County prosecutor is not a good one for their community or nearby Hancock County, Burkhart said.
“We’re going to do what we’ve always been doing, until or if the laws change,” Burkhart said.
By making the decision to change the way the law is enforced in Marion County, Burkhart feels officials there are taking the power out of the hands of legislators and ultimately the people who put them there.
“It’s not up to us to just decide to change things,” Burkhart said.
Local law enforcement officials are worried about the inconsistency that officers will encounter on the streets when they try to enforce marijuana laws that change from one county to another.
“It just opens up a can of worms,” Burkhart said. “It is going to cause us some issues.”
Cumberland, for example, straddles the Marion/Hancock County line. A drug case could literally hinge on which side of the street an arrest was made.
Rasche chuckled, he said, when he learned about Mears’ decision.
Rasche said law enforcement must uphold the laws as they are presented on the books. Rasche heard from police officers in Cumberland and Indianapolis, including officials from the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, who will continue to uphold the law.
“They will continue to arrest people and people will continue to go to jail and it will be up to the prosecutor, so if they don’t want to file it, they don’t file it, but officers are going to do their job,” Rasche said.
Most officers in Hancock County can use discretion on incidents, particularly if pot possession is a lesser crime that’s part of a bigger case. A minor drug charge, for example, can be used as a negotiating effort that leads to a bigger arrest. In some cases, officers are allowed to destroy marijuana and send people on their way, but the majority of the time, charges are filed, officials said.
Mears said his office wants to be able to use the same type of discretion in determining when they want to file marijuana charges.
Attorney General Curtis Hill didn’t agree with the decision made by the acting prosecutor in Marion County.
“I respect and support the fact that prosecutors have absolute discretion in deciding when to file criminal charges and how to allocate their resources,” Hill said in a press release. “It seems to me a curious strategy to put out a welcome mat for lawbreakers in a community already facing challenges related to crime, homelessness and other social problems stemming from drug abuse.”
Typically, Hill said, prosecutors carefully exercise discretion on a case-by-case basis rather than proclaiming in all cases they will ignore a particular state law not to their liking.
“I am concerned that this proclamation in Marion County will attract to Indianapolis people with a particular interest in communities where drug enforcement is lax,” Hill said.
