CHIEF SAYS HIS JOB IS TO SUPPORT PUBLIC'S MANDATES

Joplin police Chief Lane Roberts interview

Joplin police Chief Lane J. Roberts, a self-described child of the
'60s with more than 30 years of law-enforcement experience, makes no
bones about his previous use of marijuana.

As a young man serving in the U.S. military, he says he smoked the
drug a couple of times, but unlike former President Bill Clinton,
Roberts acknowledges he inhaled. "Like a lot of people my age, I had
an opportunity to experiment with it," he said during a recent
interview with the Globe concerning the launch of a marijuana
decriminalization initiative, spearheaded by a petition signature
drive in Joplin. "I didn't like it. It made me feel like a criminal. I
don't know how else I can put it."

For Roberts, it is not about what he thinks of marijuana use that
matters, it's what the voters in Joplin choose at the polls, he said.

"My opinion about the use or non-use is frankly irrelevant," he
said.

"I will be objective about it. So, if the public says this is what we
want ... my job is to support the public's mandates."

Personal vs. Professional

Roberts said that even though he does have personal feelings about the
issue, he will keep them to himself. "I don't know that I want to
create a predisposition as to whether or not I agree or disagree," he
said. "I don't want to be taking a position that will lead to some
lack of faith in what motivates me to make an enforcement decision."

Although Roberts declined an invitation extended to him and his
officers to attend the Cannabis Revival today in Joplin's Landreth
Park, he said that he is willing to sit down with those proposing the
measure to discuss the issues at another time.

"I'm going to sit down with anybody to talk about how we apply the law
and the department's philosophies," he said. "But," he added, "I don't
think I'm going to put (my officers) in a situation that I know will
lead to a conflict. The only thing that will do is create hard
feelings. In order for us to understand one another's point of view we
have to be having a reasonable intellectual discussion, not emotional
arguments. I'll sit down with folks who want to talk about it
reasonably."

Possible Benefits

Roberts recalls a time years ago when he and his brother, who has
since died of cancer, talked about marijuana issues at length.

"I lost my younger brother to cancer and I do understand that there is
some beneficial effect -- at least in terms of mitigating the symptoms
for the sufferer," he said. "So I'm the last guy to be critical of
legitimate medical needs."

Roberts laughed a little when he talked about his brother's dedication
to the marijuana-legalization cause. He said that his brother would
have been a big supporter of the Joplin initiative.

"He would donate to the effort to legalize marijuana long before he
would have donated to cancer research," Roberts said. "And then, he
died of cancer." Roberts said that he and his brother just agreed to
disagree.

"Our discussion after I became a police officer was quite simple:
'You're a grownup and it's your choice, but if you choose to use it
. do so accepting the responsibility.'"

"I figured out at about 19 or 20 that it was not the way I wanted to
conduct myself," he said. "It wasn't about the substance, it was about
whether or not I wanted to be an advocate of the rules or an opponent
of the rules, and, I obviously chose to be an advocate of them." Along
with the medical uses of the outlawed plant, Roberts said he does see
a possible benefit of a decriminalization measure for local courts.

"I think the big benefit will be to the criminal courts," he
contends.

He suggested that by moving marijuana possession and paraphernalia
offenses to an administrative court docket, it could relieve some of
the burden on the criminal court.

"In terms of it as an administrative offense ... it's still an offense
and we are still charged with enforcing it," he said. "We are still
going to seize it as evidence and we are still going to have to field
test it to make sure it's marijuana. We will have to testify in court
that it is marijuana. It would be like some driving offenses that are
not criminal in nature. We still have to testify to them or the
citation won't stand."

'It's An Interesting Issue'

When asked how his officers had reacted to the decriminalization of
pot possession in Oregon and in Washington state where he previously
headed up departments, Roberts reclined in his office chair and smiled.

"When that law was first passed, most police officers thought that the
end of the world as we know it was about to occur," he said. "But, we
thought the same thing when the Miranda decision came down."

Roberts said that he isn't really excited to deal with the
decriminalization issue that's about to move center stage in Joplin,
but suggests he will keep an open mind. "Its an interesting issue," he
admits. "I can tell you that I'm not thrilled to face it, but on the
other hand, it crops up pretty much all over the nation at some time
or another."

Roberts seems to have made his peace with the issue somewhere in the
middle.

"Somebody is going to say, 'you're the chief ... you ought to oppose
this thing,'" he said. "Somebody else will say 'you are the chief of
police and supposed to be protecting our constitutional rights.' My
argument is, 'yep ... you are right.'"