If you are carrying 25 grams or less and you get a cop that gives you a county ordinance violation instead of a city ticket or state charge.
Here’s a good example of police discretion. When you get a caught with a small amount of weed (25 grams or less or just a little less than an ounce – .88 of an ounce), the police or sheriff that catches you has some choices. If the resolution passes at the Public Protection and Judiciary and eventually the county board, the county sheriff will be able to give you a maximum $10 ticket. According to the fiscal note: “The current ordinance would allow a forfeiture of up to $1,000 per offense, although the average forfeiture actually imposed during 2014 was approximately $110.” Apparently, they only give about 100 tickets a year? The fiscal note also says this: “Adopting the ordinance amendment will reduce the average individual forfeiture amount by approximately $100 and have an overall revenue impact of approximately $10,125 based on 2014 experience.”
I don’t believe the city police can give a county ticket, but I’m not entirely certain about that. But, what actually happens to a person if they get caught with a little more than 3/4s of an ounce of pot will depend upon a lot of things. What the police officer decides to do, what the police department decides to do and what the district attorney decides to do.
In the City of Madison we have had the ordinance MGO 23.20 for years. There is a max $100 fine for possession of 28 grams of cannabis or 112 grams of marijuana. And yet, I know of people who ended up with misdemeanor charges for carrying a joint into a Pink Floyd Concert (ok, that was years ago I defended that case for a client, but it makes the point) Don’t remember if that was because it was campus police or that police discretion? That law (which is near impossible to cite or copy) also allows possession in a private place or with a prescription with no charge. Perhaps an alder wants to drop that to $10 as well?
Of course if you are in Fitchburg or Stoughton or Maple Bluff other laws will apply and the state law still applies if they choose to apply it. Ah . . . discretion . . . lets look at those arrest rate disparities and discretion . . . even if Koval doesn’t want to.
