Police Property Seizures Ensnare Even the Innocent
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091112/METRO/911120388/Police-property-seizures-ensnare-even-the-innocent
November 12. 2009 1:00AM
Police property seizures ensnare even the innocent
Money raised by Metro Detroit agencies increases 50% in five years
George Hunter and Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
Local law enforcement agencies are raising millions of dollars by
seizing private property suspected in crimes, but often without charges
being filed -- and sometimes even when authorities admit no offense was
committed.
The money raised by confiscating goods in Metro Detroit soared more than
50 percent to at least $20.62 million from 2003 to 2007, according to a
Detroit News analysis of records from 58 law enforcement agencies. In
some communities, amounts raised went from tens of thousands to hundreds
of thousands -- and, in one case, into the millions.
"It's like legalized stealing," said Jacque Sutton, a 21-year-old
college student from Mount Clemens whose 1989 Mustang was seized by
Detroit police raiding a party. Charges against him and more than 100
others were dropped, but he still paid more than $1,000 to get the car back.
"According to the law, I did nothing wrong -- but they're allowed to
take my property anyway. It doesn't make sense."
While courts have maintained the government's right to take property
involved in crimes, police seizures -- also known as forfeitures -- are
a growing source of friction in Michigan, especially as law enforcement
agencies struggle to balance budgets.
"Police departments right now are looking for ways to generate revenue,
and forfeiture is a way to offset the costs of doing business," said
Sgt. Dave Schreiner, who runs Canton Township's forfeiture unit, which
raised $343,699 in 2008. "You'll find that departments are doing more
forfeitures than they used to because they've got to -- they're running
out of money and they've got to find it somewhere."
The increase in property seizures merely is a byproduct of diligent law
enforcement, some law enforcement officials say.
"We're trying to fight crime," said Police Chief Mike Pachla of
Roseville, where the money raised from forfeitures jumped more than
tenfold, from $33,890 to $393,014.
"We would be just as aggressive even if there wasn't any money involved."
Roseville had among the most dramatic increases over the five-year
period examined by The News. But several other agencies also more than
doubled their takes, including Novi, Trenton, Farmington Hills,
Southfield, the Michigan State Police, Shelby Township, Livonia, Warren
and Romulus.
The increase in money coming in leads to a higher percentage of the
police budget being covered by seizures. In Roseville, the share of the
police budget raised from forfeitures went from 0.3 percent to 4.2
percent. In Romulus, it jumped from 4.5 percent to 11.2 percent from
2003-2007, the most recent years for which comparable records were
available. Some agencies said records weren't available.
Police and prosecutors profit because citizens must either pay to get
their confiscated property back or lose their cars, homes and other
seized assets to the arresting agencies, which auction them off.
The increased reliance on seized property to fund police operations
amounts to a trade-off for law enforcement. The tough economy may be
prompting law enforcement agencies to use an "entrepreneurial spirit,"
but that makes for bad public relations, said Tom Hendrickson, director
of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.
Courts support seizures
The friction over seizures is a result of two competing legacies in U.S.
law. While the Fourth Amendment, adopted in 1791, protects the right of
citizens to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, the Supreme
Court ruled in 1827 that a Spanish-owned ship could be seized after it
fired on a U.S. vessel. Whether or not the crew was convicted, the brig
was the principal offender, it ruled.
And 169 years later, the nation's high court reaffirmed the notion when
it ruled that a Royal Oak woman couldn't challenge the seizure of the
family sedan after her husband was caught having sex with a prostitute
inside, even though she didn't know the car was being used for that purpose.
Just last month, the high court heard the case of six people from
Chicago who sought prompt hearings on the seizure of their cars and
money. When a federal attorney told the court the government needs time
to determine who owns a car and to investigate that person's connection
to the criminal activity, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said: "I'm sorry. You
take the car and then you investigate?"
A ruling, expected to come on procedural grounds, is due by the end of
the Supreme Court's term in June and isn't expected to change law on
property forfeiture.
"Unfortunately, the Supreme Court so far has ruled that they're not
unconstitutional," said Kary Moss, director of the Michigan American
Civil Liberties Union.
Modern civil forfeiture laws originally were passed in the 1970s and
1980s to allow police to seize the means of committing crimes. For
instance, if a drug dealer was using a boat to transport drugs, the law
enabled officers to confiscate the vessel before the case went to trial.
But the laws expanded over the years to allow the seizure of property
that had only a loose connection to the alleged crime, and police now
are taking property for infractions that would not have resulted in
forfeitures in the past, including minor drug possession, gambling, drag
racing, drunken driving and even loitering near illegal activity.
While laws governing seizures by federal authorities have been reformed
to make it more difficult for them to seize property, state
legislatures, including Michigan's, have not followed suit.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office often makes people pay to get their
seized property back without filing any charges -- and in some cases
citizens such as Sutton must pay even though police and prosecutors
admit they can't prove any law was broken. In his case, police raided a
dance party they thought was a blind pig and issued tickets to more than
100 people, all of which were later dropped.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy declined comment, but issued a written statement
explaining that she wants to get criminals off the street, and that the
law allows her office to seize property without filing charges.
Canton's Sgt. Schreiner insisted forfeiture laws should be wielded
responsibly.
"There's a right way and a wrong way to do forfeitures," he said. "First
of all, you should always file charges; if you don't have a case against
someone, you shouldn't seize their property.
"But even when there is a crime, the law should be used as it was
intended. If we seize a computer that was used to commit identity fraud,
that's a good thing. But if Joe Citizen complains that he was arrested
for a small amount of drugs, and we took his refrigerator and
silverware, then I think he has a valid complaint."
Agencies ramp up efforts
Many of the increases in forfeitures obtained by local police agencies
aren't the result of money hunting, officials say, although they also
admit their efforts to take property have increased.
When Romulus saw a 118 percent jump in forfeiture revenues from 2003-07,
the increase was not the result of more criminal activity, Chief Michael
St. Andre said.
"It's because our forfeiture efforts have ramped up in the past few
years," he said.
Revenue was not a primary concern, he said, "but it is nice when we're
able to purchase things we need from arrests.
"I don't have to go to the city and ask for things like bulletproof
vests or computers."
In Trenton, forfeitures hit a high of $874,499 in 2006. Police Chief
William Lilienthal said his department joined a federal drug task force
in 2005 that focused on asset seizures, which partially accounts for the
increase.
Novi saw the biggest revenue increase in forfeiture revenues, going from
$12,278 in 2003 to $2.7 million in 2007. But police officials said that
spike is largely attributed to a 2005 arrest of a nationwide drug cartel
that netted millions of dollars over a three-year period.
Yet adding to the dissent over seizures is that police agencies are able
and even required to return the proceeds from forfeitures into more law
enforcement activities, which can make a seizure look like a money-grab
even if it isn't.
That's risky business, said Hendrickson, who represents the state's
chiefs of police.
"Police departments should never make revenue a prime concern," he said.
"That undermines people's confidence in their police officers."
Under state law, police departments may use the funds raised from most
seizures indiscriminately within their own departments, although drug
forfeiture money must be put back into fighting drugs.
But even that rule is being relaxed because of the tough economy.
Earlier this year, Romulus police were able to purchase 16 new Dodge
Chargers from drug forfeiture funds, which usually isn't allowed.
"They allowed it this year because the economy is so bad, it's an
emergency situation," St. Andre said. "We contacted the DEA and asked
permission to use that money to purchase vehicles."
In Trenton, forfeiture revenues paid for a new firing range.
"Forfeitures are a way to help supplement your budgetary issues,"
Trenton Chief William Lilienthal said.
"You can't supplant your budget with them, but you can supplement it. If
you need something, you can utilize those funds to purchase it."
ghu...@detnews.com The Detroit News' Bridget Baulch and Mike Wilkinson
contributed.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
All laws are good, to those who draw a salary for
their enforcement.
-- Clark Ashton Smith
John Graeme
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> contributed.
>
> --
> Dan Clore
>
> My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
> (Wait for the new edition:http://hplmythos.com/)
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> All laws are good, to those who draw a salary for
> their enforcement.
> -- Clark Ashton Smith
From FEAR (Forfeiture Endangers American Rights)
http://www.fear.org/
"Civil asset forfeiture has allowed police to view all of America as
some giant national K-Mart, where prices are not just lower, but non-
existent — a sort of law enforcement 'pick-and-don't-pay.'"
—U.S. Representative Henry Hyde
Eighty percent of property forfeited to the US during the previous
decade was seized from owners who were never even charged with a
crime!
Even a false statement on a loan application can trigger forfeiture..
The government even tried to forfeit a farmer's tractor for allegedly
running over an endangered rat.
Many innocent owners still face the untenable situation of having to
prove a negative—that their property was not involved in a crime, or
that they had no knowledge of criminal activity. Most owners of seized
property still lack the financial resources to even bring their cases
to court. A final hour amendment to CAFRA won by the Dept. of Justice
allows appointed counsel only for property owners who have court
appointed attorneys in related criminal charges, and for some owners
of seized homes.
Innocent owners who are never charged with a crime still must prove
their innocence in complex proceedings, where many cases are lost
before even coming to trial. Most forfeiture cases are never
contested, in part because contesting the proceedings can cost more
than the value of what's been confiscated. "The average vehicle
siezed is worth about $4,000," states FEAR president Brenda Grantland,
Esq. "To defend a case, especially when you're out of state, they've
pretty much made it cost prohibitive." Under civil asset forfeiture
laws, the simple possessoin of cash, with no drugs or other
contraband, can be considered evidence of criminal activity
JohnR
news:4B067EC3...@columbia-center.org...
hideous as the criminal drug empires it's prohibition policy has
created and continues to feed.