Over the past year, Oklahoma has become a flashpoint in the nationwide debate over a law enforcement procedure known as civil asset forfeiture. Civil forfeiture allows the police to seize property or cash on mere suspicion that it’s connected to criminal activity, even when they lack sufficient evidence to actually charge the suspect with a crime. And in most jurisdictions, the seizing agency even gets to keep the proceeds of their seizures rather than depositing the money in some general fund.
Such perverse incentives have predictably led to a string of abuses around the country, leading to efforts at reform or outright abolition. In Oklahoma, a reform effort led by State Sen. Kyle Loveless (R) stalled out after an organized campaign by law enforcement suggested that forfeiture reform would strengthen the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and lead to Mexican drug cartels hanging decapitated corpses from Oklahoma bridges. The experience in neighboring New Mexico, which abolished civil forfeiture last year, suggests those claims may be exaggerated. No terrorists; no decapitated bodies littering the streets. Just fewer instances of forfeiture abuse.
In the absence of substantive reform, civil forfeiture abuses in Oklahoma continue to pile up. A county sheriff threw a man in jail and wouldn’t release him until he signed over the $10,000 in cashhe’d been carrying as drug proceeds. A Christian band from Burma had tens of thousands of dollars, earmarked for refugee orphanages and schools, taken by police because the band manager was carrying the money in separate envelopes. And now Oklahomans who carry cash on gift cards or prepaid debit cards will be at risk as well.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/when-police-seize-property-burden-proof-you
Such perverse incentives have predictably led to a string of abuses around the country, leading to efforts at reform or outright abolition. In Oklahoma, a reform effort led by State Sen. Kyle Loveless (R) stalled out after an organized campaign by law enforcement suggested that forfeiture reform would strengthen the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and lead to Mexican drug cartels hanging decapitated corpses from Oklahoma bridges. The experience in neighboring New Mexico, which abolished civil forfeiture last year, suggests those claims may be exaggerated. No terrorists; no decapitated bodies littering the streets. Just fewer instances of forfeiture abuse.
In the absence of substantive reform, civil forfeiture abuses in Oklahoma continue to pile up. A county sheriff threw a man in jail and wouldn’t release him until he signed over the $10,000 in cashhe’d been carrying as drug proceeds. A Christian band from Burma had tens of thousands of dollars, earmarked for refugee orphanages and schools, taken by police because the band manager was carrying the money in separate envelopes. And now Oklahomans who carry cash on gift cards or prepaid debit cards will be at risk as well.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/when-police-seize-property-burden-proof-you
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