By Mayor Points Finger at District Attorney
Houston Mayor John Whitmire blamed a sharp spike in misdemeanor marijuana arrests on Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, whose office prosecutes crimes in the city. His comments to reporters on Wednesday came days after Houston Public Media reported a nearly 1,200% increase in misdemeanor marijuana arrests by the Houston Police Department under Whitmire compared to the three years before he took office.
“It’s a very complex issue, and certainly you’re playing loose with those numbers,” Whitmire said on Wednesday. “It’s largely the change in district attorney. Charges don’t come about without talking to the district attorney.”
The report found arrests have averaged 440 people per year for low-level cannabis possession under Whitmire, compared to only about 35 misdemeanor cannabis arrests per year from 2021-2023. Whitmire argued the DA’s increased willingness to prosecute low-level marijuana offenses drove the spike in arrests.
“Personal use of marijuana is not a priority” for the city’s police department, Whitmire told reporters. “The officers use discretion when they discover personal use of marijuana,” he said during his remarks, according to Houston Public Media.
“We talk to the district attorney’s office, and they make the final decision whether anyone will be accepted in intake,” Whitmire said. “I know you might not like that number, but those are the facts.”
Prosecutions Rose Before Teare Took Office
According to an analysis of Harris County criminal court records by Houston Public Media, the DA’s Office ramped up prosecutions of misdemeanor marijuana cases in 2024, from an average of 151 in the preceding three years to more than 1,600. That increase came before Teare took office in 2025, after defeating Kim Ogg in the Democratic primary.
Prosecutions have remained elevated under Teare, with more than 1,200 last year and nearly 700 so far this year. Ogg implemented a diversion program for misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2017, offering a path away from jail if alleged offenders agreed to complete 90 days of community supervision and a cognitive course.
“It was a negotiated compromise [with law enforcement leaders] so that we could keep cops on the street longer and stop ruining individual work and school opportunities through unnecessary convictions, especially when marijuana was legal in so many states,” Ogg told Houston Public Media on Wednesday.
In August 2023, Ogg issued a memo stating her office would “now evaluate every drug possession case … for the direct filing of charges,” citing “the increasing public safety threat of fentanyl.” In 2024, the first full year after the memo, prosecutions surged by more than 550%.
Ogg told Houston Public Media the memo had “zero to do” with cannabis and was “all directed at controlled substances,” namely fentanyl or white powdery substances. She attributed the spike in prosecutions to “arrests reaching a pre-COVID normalcy.”
Dispute Over the Numbers Continues
A spokesperson for Teare told Houston Public Media that the memo “absolutely corresponded with the spike in marijuana prosecutions.” Teare was not made available for an interview.
