After Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers were criticized for repeatedly hitting a woman during a marijuana-related arrest in November, police say they are taking steps to modify how they use force and interact with the public. But they stopped short of accepting some recommendations to stop investigating the mere smell of marijuana.
After the physical confrontation and arrest — which went viral on Instagram — police received 17 reform recommendations from the Community and Police Collaboration Group, which was formed in January. The group includes organizations such as the Community Relations Committee, the NAACP, Latin American Coalition and the George Floyd Global Memorial.
CMPD said they plan to implement recommendations including adding more de-escalation policies and focusing on slowing down police interactions with the public through officer training.
The woman and her boyfriend were arrested at a bus stop on South Tryon and Arrowood Road. after police smelled marijuana. The pair said they were smoking a legal, hemp-based product purchased at a smoke store; all charges were later dropped.
Although the community group recommended that police stop approaching and arresting people simply because they smell marijuana, CMPD said they will continue to give officers the discretion to approach, question, cite and arrest people when they smell pot.
"Marijuana continues to be illegal under both North Carolina and federal law at this time. Officers continue to have the discretion to enforce the legal standard — either a voluntary contact, investigative detention or make an arrest — depending on the situation encountered," the department wrote.
Today, CMPD responded to 17 recommendations that were made by the Community and Police Collaboration Group across the areas of de-escalation, response to resistance and marijuana use and enforcement. The group was formed in November 2023, following a use-of-force incident on… pic.twitter.com/gl4RNizIBz
— CMPD News (@CMPD) April 9, 2024
Deputy Chief Jacquelyn Bryley said the department wants to keep in touch with the new advisory group.
“We want this to be a continued conversation. Again, we want to make sure that we don't just take the recommendations and then nothing happens with it,” Bryley said. “So we have some internal benchmarks that we're going to try to make sure we put in place to continue to have that ongoing conversation to make sure we're achieving what we're trying to set out to do.”
