Houston voters approve no-knock warrant ban, deprioritizing marijuana

Well, Houston voters have supported Proposition A. They voted overwhelmingly to support it on election night. So now you have to implement what it says. So basically, Proposition A says, are you in support of the police department deprioritizing small amounts of marijuana and also banning no-knock warrants? And you guys supported it. So now let's go to Karis Belger to tell us when we're going to see these changes. Karis? Yeah, Anthony. The purpose of this is for voters essentially saying they want changes in both enforcement and also transparency. So along with restrictions on no-knock warrants, the police department would have to publish five years worth of information about misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses. It would also have to include the communities where all of this happened, who was charged, and also at what cost. And the goal, at least from the people who helped put this together, craft it, and help get it on the ballot, the goal there is to make sure that there is more accountability and transparency when it comes to law enforcement, and also how resources are being used. Proposition A would make a class A and class B misdemeanor of marijuana possession HPD's lowest enforcement priority. It bars Houston officers from requesting, executing, or participating in search warrants that don't require them to knock, announce themselves, and wait at least 15 seconds. The measure would require updated policies, officer training, and that five-year enforcement The commencement audit that I mentioned, And I spoke with Natalie Marquez with Ground Game Texas. She says the warrant restrictions were an important part of the campaign's conversations with voters. And actually early on when we started our campaign, people were like, okay, marijuana, fine, not a big fan. But they really obviously had the homegrown issue of the banning on no-knock warrants of having that experience, remembering what happened in 2019. And Karis, tell me more about that audit. So what is the goal here with that? Well, it would not only include who was arrested, it would include the community information along with demographic information of these citations. Also how much money was spent on an arrest, fines, and also if someone did go into custody with that cost as well. And their idea is that these lower level marijuana possession offenses tend to disproportionately impact one particular community. So they're hoping that by making that information public, we'll have a better idea of what's going on with the Houston Police Department. I want to mention the mayor has already said previously that marijuana possession was already a low level priority. So that's not something the police department was already focusing on. But this really just puts it on paper in terms of the no knock warrants. This came out of a very well known case a few years ago and the priority there is to make sure that at least from Ground Game Texas that people don't get hurt when it comes to law enforcement activity, Anthony. All right, thank you so much for that, Karis. You guys voted in Harris County that direction, and now it will be implemented. Thank you so much.