New York City, NY
The state of New York has received a middling grade for its civil forfeiture laws from a Virginia-based public interest law firm.
In the third edition of its “Policing for Profit” report, the Institute for Justice (IJ) has given New York a “C” grade for its asset forfeiture laws, praising the state for a recent set of reforms that strengthened transparency requirements, while calling for more change to the state’s forfeiture laws.
The issue of confiscated cash and property by US law enforcement agencies has been a top concern in recent years. Organizations like The Institute of Justice based in Virginia work to protect the rights of citizens affected by unfettered civil asset forfeiture now known as policing for profit. The Institute has represented small business owners who have had funds and property taken by police even though no charges were filed or no crime was ever committed.
Some of these funds confiscated through civil asset forfeiture were eventually returned, but many have never been recovered. Once disbursed to either state or federal agencies, watchdog organizations have found it nearly impossible to locate the assets again. Many are now asking why this practice exists at all and why it is still so pervasive.
Police in Florida seized nearly $266 million in cash, homes, vehicles, and other property using forfeiture actions in 2018, more than any other state, according to a new report published by the Institute of Justice.
A majority of the seizures are from civil asset forfeiture, a tool that allows law enforcement to take cash or property they believe was involved in a crime, even if the owner is never charged.
According to the Institute of Justice report, Florida law enforcement agencies collected $246 million through forfeiture actions and almost $20 million through federal equitable sharing programs in 2018, making it a leader in property seizures in the nation. For comparison, larger states like California and Texas collected an estimated $139 million and $90 million, respectively.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina announced this week that it collected over $56 million in criminal, civil, and asset forfeiture actions for the 2020 fiscal year.
U.S. Attorney Peter M. McCoy confirmed that his office collected $53,839,927 in criminal and civil actions. Approximately $49 million was collected in civil actions, while $4.8 million was collected in criminal actions.
A broken tail light or driving over the speed limit is reason enough for a traffic stop. But is it justification for all the cash in the car to be confiscated by police?
Unfortunately, the answer in Iowa is yes, to the tune of over $100 million in the past 20 years. Even more unbelievable is the fact that no speeding ticket, no warning, and no probable cause has to exist. This practice, legal in all 50 states, is called civil asset forfeiture.
Criminal Defense and Civil Forfeiture Blog