Q&A
Geographic focus and prioritization of cannabis enforcement
1:24:49
·
3 min
Council Member Williams inquires about the Sheriff's Office's strategy for prioritizing enforcement in certain areas. Sheriff Miranda explains their approach to geographic enforcement and prioritization.
- Enforcement priorities include locations near schools, houses of worship, and where people have gotten sick from cannabis products
- The Sheriff's Office has teams in all five boroughs to ensure a holistic approach
- Complaints and referrals play a significant role in determining which shops to inspect
- The office aims for balanced enforcement across different areas of the city
Nantasha Williams
1:24:49
Thank you.
1:24:50
And, again, I just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work.
1:24:53
I know when we send you smoke shops, you all are quite responsive.
1:24:57
And if I could just turn to questions about geographic areas of focus, So outside of people proactively reaching out to your office to tell you about different smoke shops that might be of concern to the community, do you have any specific strategy that you'd like to share around how you prioritize certain enforcement in certain areas?
Anthony Miranda
1:25:20
I'm not sure that we will be able to be as specific as I think you're looking for.
1:25:26
However, I would say the following, we do take precaution safety measures in place.
1:25:32
We do evaluate what our response would be.
1:25:34
We believe that the size of the teams are adequate to be able to address the situation in a safe manner.
1:25:40
And then we have resources available if we believe the situation gets out of control.
1:25:44
And sometimes, like I said, 900 something shops past inspections.
1:25:48
So it's an easy conversation why we're here, what we're here to do, and then they're compliant with the request that we have.
1:25:54
We do inspect the location, and they don't have any violations.
1:25:58
And they may not have any cannabis violations, so they would not fall under the the cannabis laws.
1:26:02
But if they have illegal cigarettes or they have vapes, then they will be issued the other violations that we observe.
Nantasha Williams
1:26:08
Yes.
1:26:08
I'm fully aware of that.
1:26:11
Having many conversations with my police precinct about other ways that they've tried to before the padlock, new laws.
1:26:18
They've tried to close smoke shots by figuring out other illegal activity that might be happening.
1:26:22
But I guess just to to reiterate my question is more so about how you go about prioritizing, closing certain smoke shops.
1:26:32
So for instance, I know the council, and I'm not sure if we've received it, but I know the the council requested a full list of suspected unlicensed storefronts.
1:26:41
And so I guess on our end, I'm sure maybe it's clear on your end, but on our end, we're not sure whether these maxes lay the city's enforcement priorities are simply just show where most illicit cannabis shops are located.
1:26:54
So, again, we saw that while you have been very diligent and expecting across the city, some areas in particular have received more enforcement than others such as Lower Manhattan Harlem, the South Bronx, and Williamsburg.
1:27:07
So on our side, we're just trying to understand if there's a method to that madness or if this is just you being responsive to people reaching out to your office to conduct different types of operations.
Anthony Miranda
1:27:18
There's both method and there is both planes that we receive as well.
1:27:23
Again, if we receive any priority, if somebody has gotten sick from a location, adult or a child, then we're definitely gonna be changing the priorities and making sure we take care of that.
1:27:33
They are by the schools, again, the eminent threat factors or schools, houses of worship where kids got sick.
1:27:38
So if we get that strategy, then we're gonna prioritize those.
1:27:42
Otherwise, if there's nothing out of the ordinary, then we're gonna go right down the list.
1:27:46
We again, because we have teams in each of the five boroughs that reinforce us the opportunity to be holistic in the approach.
1:27:51
If we had unlimited, then we would have to say manage each day.
1:27:55
I had 10 in this barrel.
1:27:56
I gotta go 10 more in the other barrel.
1:27:57
And in the current process, we're able to kind of adjust everybody equally and evenly, so it allows that kind of enforcement of balance enforcement.
