Austin voters have approved a voting measure that prevents city police officers from enforcing laws against possession of small quantities of marijuana or entering property without warning using prohibition orders.
Proposal A – which removes the discretion of the police by cementing these two policies in law – was adopted by 56,004 votes in favor, or 85.8%, while there were 9,270 votes against, or 14.2%, according to the final, but unofficial results from the Travis County office.
Support A was Austin’s only proposal in Saturday’s vote and caused limited noise before the vote. After fierce battles in the Austin homeless election in May 2020 and the hiring of police last November, Prop A did not even launch an opposition campaign.
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With the adoption of Prop A, city police officers will no longer have the right to arrest or file a complaint for possession of a criminal quantity of marijuana, with two exceptions: if the arrest or citation is part of a high-priority drug investigation or a felony.
Otherwise, most police officers will have the right to seize the drugs.
The adoption of the proposal by voters codifies in law the policy that the Austin City Council recommended to the Austin Police Department in early 2020, after Governor Greg Abbott signed a law a year earlier that made it almost impossible to distinguish narcotic marijuana from legal hemp. . In July 2020, then-Police Chief Brian Manley announced that officers would no longer quote or arrest people for small amounts of sweat.
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On the issue of orders without knocking, the passage of Prop A stipulates that police officers investigating a crime can still enter a home with a signed order, but only after announcing their presence and waiting at least 15 seconds.
The use of banning orders became the focus of a national conversation in 2020 after Breona Taylor was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky in a failed attack on her apartment. Later that year, the Austin City Council restricted the use of a warrant. prohibition of knocking by the police only when the safety of the police is a problem and after obtaining the approval of the commander and the judge.
Austin police execute a ban on knocking only three or four times a year, and only when confronted by a suspect they consider dangerous, according to Ken Kazadei, who heads the Austin Police Association’s union.
The police union was neutral on the wording of the marijuana proposal, but opposed the lifting of the ban orders. Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacken told the American statesman that he does not take a public position on support A.
The organization behind the proposal, Ground Game Texas, is led by two previous candidates in Congress: Julie Oliver, a Democratic 25 nominee in District 25 in 2018 and 2020, and Mike Siegel, a Democrat nominee in District 10 in the same years. .
Siegel, political director of Ground Game Texas, said the organization was pleased with the results.
“Prop A seems to be going through a huge mandate from Austin voters,” Seigal said. “We hope this sends a message to state leaders that issues such as marijuana reform and the suspension of orders without knocking are extremely popular with voters, and we need to do this across the state.
Kazadei, president of the Austin Police Association’s union, said he was not overly concerned about the measure.
“It was a really good deal for the people behind A, but we don’t believe it really matters,” Kazadei said.
Kazadei said the union had not “interfered in the marijuana debate” and that he believed federal law would cover the aspect of the proposal, which guarantees a ban on knocking.
“We do not believe that this will affect us. The city of Austin cannot tell the chief of police how to run his department when it comes to security, and we fully expect to continue issuing search warrants, even though we only do two or three a year. “I don’t think it’s going to affect anything,” he said.
The effective date of Prop A will be the date of the election. The deadline for campaigning is May 18.
Saturday’s vote was the last city election before the November election, when the mayor and five districts of the Municipal Council will run.
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