In Michigan, police were caught on tape stealing private property:
What do you want to take in the basement? Do you want to take the drums and all that (expletive), or no?
The police took three pages worth of property that included a 52″ flat-screen TV, a DVD player, two computers, a camera and several DVDs.
Why does this kind of abuse happen? The answer is civil forfeiture.
In the United States, if the government suspects that you committed a crime, officials can arrest you and put you on trial. The government must then prove you are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
But if the government suspects that your property was involved in a crime, under civil forfeiture laws officials can take and sell your property. In most instances, they get to pocket the proceeds. Importantly, they don’t have to prove you did anything wrong. This sounds bizarre, but with civil forfeiture, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent.
As civil forfeiture expert Scott Bullock explains in the above video:
You cannot give the very people who are out there enforcing the laws a direct incentive to try to take homes, cars, currency, and other property from citizens. Under the law in over 40 states, police and prosecutors are allowed to keep all or most of the property that they seize. So this gives them a very direct incentive to go out and take as much property from citizens as possible.
This explains why one of the police officers caught on tape says, “If Luke comes down here, he’s gonna wanna take everything . . . he’s gonna give us a chance to frickin’ take all this stuff.”
Unfortunately, this outrage is far from an isolated incident. The Institute for Justice released a comprehensive report, Policing for Profit, which examines and grades the civil forfeiture laws of all 50 states and the national government. The findings are disturbing:
- Most state civil forfeiture laws provide little protection to property owners.
- Public accountability over civil forfeiture is extremely low: In most states, we know next-to-nothing about the use of civil forfeiture or its proceeds.
- Only three states get a B or better for their use of civil forfeiture.
- Most states range from mediocre to awful.
- A federal legal loophole known as equitable sharing allows police and prosecutors to bypass state protections and keep pocketing forfeiture money.
IJ’s report can be viewed and downloaded for free here. You can also quickly check to see how your state was graded, and how it compares nationally. Abuses are found all across the country. For example:
- GEORGIA: Forfeiture funds paid for football tickets for a DEA’s office.
- LOUISIANA: Police were caught stealing innocent people’s property by making up crimes that never happened. They used the proceeds to fund ski trips to Aspen.
- MISSOURI: Authorities were caught turning forfeitures over to the federal government in order to avoid a legal requirement that proceeds go to schools. That way, both groups could split the proceeds without having to share any with the children that were supposed to get the money.
- NEBRASKA: Officials stole over $124,000 from a resident without ever charging, let alone convicting, him of a crime.
- NEW YORK: A police department spent forfeiture funds on food, gifts and entertainment.
- TEXAS: A government official was caught pumping forfeiture funds into his re-election campaign.
The Institute for Justice is committed to ending this abuse. We have already filed a major lawsuit in Texas, which has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws and practices in the country. We represent a Houston entrepreneur whose American Dream was turned into a nightmare after his property was stolen through civil forfeiture. He did nothing wrong and was never accused of a crime.
What do you think of civil forfeiture? Do you have any examples of civil forfeiture occurring in your area? Please share your thoughts on our Facebook page.