While other places around the country are legalizing marijuana at a breakneck pace, New York City police are continuing to arrest black and Latino residents in record numbers. 

At a meeting Monday, Feb. 26, police and city council members sparred over the recent stats showing that 86 percent of marijuana arrests have been of black and Latino, according to The New York Daily News.

“Clearly that’s troubling, and it should be troubling to anyone, including me,” said Dermot Shea, the NYPD’s chief of crime control strategies. 

The new data has not reflected Mayor de Blasio's new policy where people caught with pot in their possession only get a summons instead of being arrested. Despite this, police continued to make arrests. As of last year, there were 17,500 arrests for marijuana possession which is a 40 percent drop from 2013. 

“People are calling up and we feel very bad for them, because they say, ‘This is the fifth time I’ve called, this is the 10th time I’ve called, please NYPD do something,’” Shea added. “They’re bringing their kids to the park, and there are people smoking marijuana.”

Councilman Donovan Richards, chair of the public safety committee, questions whether or not de Blasio is serious about decreasing the number arrests of black and brown people. “If the administration is serious about changing this disparity, we’re not seeing it.”

National data show that black and white people ages 18 to 25 use marijuana at about the same rate but the number of arrests is not the same. Black users are arrested disproportionately, per The Washington Post.

“I refuse to believe that in New York City, a city of 8 and a half million, that the only individuals calling 911 or 311 on this issue are people in communities of color,” Richards (D-Queens) said. “You can walk around City Hall these days, and walk through the park and you will smell marijuana being burned.”