Oswego Police Chief Asks Village to Create Ordinance for Marijuana Possession

OSWEGO, IL — Oswego Police Chief Jeff Burgner has asked the Oswego Village Board to discuss a modification to the village ordinance where cannabis and drug paraphernalia possession will be handled through ordinance violation tickets rather than the Kendall County court system.

On July 29, 2016, the Cannabis Control Act was amended in numerous ways, according to a memo on file with the Oswego Village Board. The most significant change that has impacted police operations would be the decriminalization of cannabis possession less than 10 grams and the possession of certain drug paraphernalia for cannabis use, the memo stated.

“If the police department continues to enforce these violations under State statute, we will be required to purchase ‘civil violation’ tickets and begin using them on January 1, 2017,” Burgner wrote in the memo. “Operating under Village ordinance will allow us to use the current ordinance violation tickets.”

Burgner wrote that by adopting the ordinance, it would give the Village the ability to collect money from fines.

“The statute requires the fine to be not less $100 and not more than $200,” Burgner said at the meeting, according to WSPY News. “As it stands right now, the village, on the cannabis offense that we would issue the civil violation for, we would get a minimum of $55 on a $100 to a $200 fine.”

Current Village ordinance violations are also civil violations, according to the memo. If the Village adopts an ordinance that creates the violation of possession of cannabis and drug paraphernalia less than 10 grams, these cases would be handled through ordinance violation tickets rather than through the Kendall County court system, which is a labor-intensive process.

Offenders would also be able to have their records expunged faster than normal, according to the memo.

The Village has not yet voted on the matter.

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