More Abuse Of Civil Forfeiture Law

Here is another example where a local police department seems to have become a law unto themselves. Civil forfeiture allows police departments to seize cash and/or property if it is in any way related to a crime. It was originally intended to be used against drug-traffickers and organized crime figures in order to seize proceeds from illegal activity. Unfortunately, police across this country have taken advantage of this law in egregious fashion, especially when they are incentivized by their state legislatures which enact laws allowing police to keep the proceeds from those seizures. There have been numerous, well-documented cases of small-town police forces basically supporting themselves by stopping citizens for the most minor or even made-up accusations in order to seize property or cash. And, in many cases, police have seized property without ever charging the owner with any crime. Indiana is one of those states where civil forfeiture is legal but the State Constitution apparently mandates that any proceeds from civil forfeiture be put into a fund to build schools. The state legislature passed a law that allowed police and prosecutors to deduct “law enforcement costs” before passing the remainder on to the school fund.

A lawsuit filed by a group trying to repeal all civil forfeiture laws alleges that the statute allowing the deduction of enforcement costs is a violation of the State Constitution. In their suit, the group also reports that Marion County, which includes the entire city of Indianapolis, has inflated law enforcement costs to such a degree that they have not contributed a single penny to the school fund since at least 2003. Prosecutors charged between $10,000 and $20,000 in costs to litigate a forfeiture case that was never contested in court. Police once charged $40,000 to have a bomb-sniffing dog sniff a suspicious package and then have it opened. And the numbers are staggering – the county averaged close to $900,000 per year in forfeiture proceeds which jumped to nearly $1.5 million in 2011. Imagine how many schools could have been built or upgraded with all that money.

Civil forfeiture is one of those laws that you can’t conceive as being legal under the Fourteenth Amendment’s restrictions against illegal search and seizure. And it clearly impacts the poor and minorities disproportionately as they have been shown to have much more contact with police and law enforcement and usually do not have the resources to contest the forfeiture action when it occurs. But the level of criminality by police and prosecutors in Marion County is staggering. The overcharging of costs is fraud on a massive basis and it is theft directly from the taxpayers and, more tragically, the children of Indiana. If there is any justice, not only will the statute be ruled unconstitutional but the police and prosecutors who engaged in this fraud should be charged and prosecuted.