Well, that didn't last long. The Justice Department suspended its "equitable sharing" asset forfeiture program in December due to budget cuts, then announced at the end of March that it would be resuming the program. The controversial program allows state and local police agencies to partner with federal law enforcement agencies to bypass stricter state laws limiting civil asset forfeiture and receive a larger portion of the assets. In California, for example, police may retain 66.25 percent of assets seized, but by partnering with federal agencies they may keep 80 percent of the proceeds. [continues 291 words]
Regarding "Policing for profit amounts to criminal injustice" (April 6): Thank you for this article. Yes, we have spent billions of dollars incarcerating people for low-level crimes such as drug possession. Asset forfeiture is a disgrace and a hardship for too many families. I understand that law enforcement has been taking an average of over $8,000 from people in California under this policy. We must stop this abuse and right these wrongs. SB 443 would protect innocent Californians by making sure that the criminal justice system can't take their money or property if the person hasn't been convicted of a crime. Gretchen Burns Bergman North County [end]
Regarding "Policing for profit is a growing problem" (April 5): Government agents should not be empowered to take innocent people's property and keep what they take. Forfeiture is ripe for abuse and that's exactly what we've seen. According to a report released last week, people of color and of lower income have repeatedly been targeted for non-criminal asset forfeiture. Perhaps that's because these groups are statistically less likely to use banks (and therefore more likely to be walking around with cash) and less likely to be able to fight the government to get their property back. [continues 63 words]
The Justice Department recently announced that it is resuming the "equitable sharing" part of its civil asset forfeiture program, thus ending one of the major criminal justice reform victories of the Obama administration. Civil asset forfeiture is a legal tool by which police officers can seize and sell private property without a convicting the owner of any crime, and equitable sharing is a process by which state and local police can circumvent state restrictions on civil asset forfeiture and take property under the color of federal law. [continues 472 words]
Taxpayers beware: There is a dangerously naive proposal making the rounds in Tallahassee. Some politicians want to significantly damage Florida's successful Contraband Forfeiture Act. This is the law that prevents criminals from profiting from their illegal acts. Just like we prohibit killers from profiting by writing books about their crimes, the civil contraband forfeiture law in Florida allows law enforcement agencies to seize assets that are linked to criminal activity with full due process protections for the accused. Bills sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes and Reps. Larry Metz and Matt Caldwell (Senate Bill 1044 and House Bill 889) would make it more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to seize criminals' illegally obtained assets. As a result, more crooks will get to keep their ill-gotten money while you work, pay your taxes, and now will have to pay more to ensure law enforcement has the necessary tools to fight and reduce crime. Why should hardworking taxpayers pay more in taxes while criminals who sell drugs to our kids get to keep their dishonestly acquired money? [continues 363 words]
As a lawyer for more than 37 years, I feel qualified to make some observations about the state of the criminal-justice system and the manner it has been administered by the General Assembly, police and prosecutors. This is brought about most recently by law enforcement complaining about proposed restrictions to forfeiture laws. I have witnessed four decades of the war on drugs, which continues to be a complete and utter failure. We arrest 14 million people each year; we have 70 million people with criminal records; and we subject these folks to more than 500,000 collateral consequences that make them second-class citizens. [continues 298 words]
As someone who was once the state police commander of nine Maryland law enforcement drug task forces, including the Harford County Drug Task Force of which State's Attorney Joe Cassilly is a benefiting member, I find the recent commentary from him to be disingenuous and somewhat self-serving ("Why are Md. lawmakers itching to fund drug dealers?" Jan. 3). Mr. Cassilly's office not only benefits from seized assets, but according to his 2015 legislative testimony, he is the architect of Maryland's current civil asset forfeiture law. He has a vested interest in maintaining this problematic policy. [continues 90 words]
