For Anchorage police, legal pot will mean changes big and small.
On Feb. 24, possessing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use will become legal in Alaska, thanks to a ballot measure supported by voters in November.
As the date approaches, the Anchorage Police Department is working out the mechanics of a new legal landscape, where smoking pot on a city sidewalk leads to a ticket, not a criminal case. Some of those changes involve practical matters, like deciding whether public-consumption tickets will be paper or electronic.
At the same time, police will encounter a fundamentally reshaped relationship with a substance they have in the past encountered and seized, on average, two to three times per day.
Right now, some of the broader legal implications of how legal pot will affect police work are up in the air.
Policing pot in public
At a Jan. 29 Anchorage Assembly public safety committee meeting, Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said the department had a "punch list of stuff we've got to get knocked out by the 24th."
Top of the list: People smoking in public, and minors in possession.
On Tuesday, Mew said he was working out the logistics of ticketing people for pot in public. The city's ordinance defines "public place" as just about the same locations drinking alcohol in public would not be allowed. The maximum fine is $100.
"I think it's gonna work like any other ticket," he said. "It's just a different form."
To prepare, the department is also putting officers through additional training to "observe, identify and articulate" whether an impaired driver is under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both. Some officers will get even more extensive drug recognition training, Mew said.
In coming weeks, APD also wants to spread the word about what's now allowed by law, and what's still illegal.
A public-information campaign about the new rules, possibly including public service announcements and bus ads, is in the works, Mew said.
One thing is clear, said Mew: In the past, finding pot meant a process that could involve testing at the state crime lab and a court case.
Now, a small amount of pot on the sidewalk will lead to, at most, a ticket.
Enforcement of existing laws in the weeks before Feb. 24 will continue just as it has, he said. Mew said marijuana enforcement has been a low priority for years.
The exception would be the high-profile arrest last week of a driver for Discreet Deliveries, a pot delivery service.
The driver sold pot to an undercover police officer, according to the APD. The business was breaking the law so blatantly that it couldn't be ignored, Mew said.
Mew said February's changes will be minor compared to the coming tangle of regulations on commercial pot sales.
"The bigger issues are probably going to be a year from now as we start dealing with regulations associated with the commercial aspects of this."
Questions about searches
Legal personal use of marijuana has the potential to in some ways reshape the way police conduct business.
Little reliable data exists on how frequently Anchorage officers arrest people for possessing small quantities of marijuana, said Troy Payne, an assistant professor with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.
"The only clear indication of how often police in Alaska come into contact with marijuana is property seizure," he said.
By that measure, police will be seizing much less pot after Feb. 24.
Anchorage police seized marijuana and entered it into evidence roughly 3,400 times from the beginning of 2010 to the midpoint of 2013, according to data supplied to Payne by the APD.
On average, that's two to three times per day.
In about 80 percent of cases Payne looked at, the amount seized was less than an ounce -- a quantity that will be legal as of Feb. 24.
In two-thirds of cases where marijuana was seized and people were charged with a crime, pot was not the most serious charge leveled, Payne said.
That data spell out what researchers already know, Payne said: In many cases, a small amount of pot opens the door to a search that turns up something else. Or, pot is "bycatch" in a larger criminal investigation.
Marijuana, because it is so common, has proven to be a valuable tool for police and prosecutors, Payne said.
"When police or prosecutors have a tool, they'll find a way to use it," Payne said.
Defense attorneys say the presence of marijuana by sight or smell is often used as a reason to conduct a search without a warrant, under an exception to Fourth Amendment provisions against unreasonable search and seizure.
"The odor of marijuana is commonly used as a pretext to search occupants of a car or the car itself," Anchorage criminal defense attorney James Christie said of cases he has dealt with.
Now that small amounts of marijuana will be legal to possess and transport, will the presence of pot still open the door to such searches?
Mew said he didn't know.
"To be honest, I don't know we've thought through all the legal implications (of Fourth Amendment issues) yet," he said.
In Washington, courts are working that issue out.
As Feb. 24 approaches, there are still plenty of unknowns.
Chief among them is the zeal with which Anchorage residents will react.
"I don't know if the 24th is going to end up looking just like the 23rd or if we're going to have this massive party on our hands," he said.