The Justice Department announced a new federal policy Wednesday to help state and local police take cash and property from people suspected of a crime, even without a criminal charge, reversing an Obama administration rule prompted by past abuse by police.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said the Justice Department will include more safeguards to prevent the kind of problems that have been documented in the past. Police departments will be required to provide details to the Justice Department about probable cause for seizures, and federal officials will have to more quickly inform property owners about their rights and the status of the seizures.
“The goal here is to empower our police and prosecutors with this important tool that can be used to combat crime, particularly drug abuse,
” Rosenstein said at a news briefing. “This is going to enable us to work with local police and our prosecutors to make sure that when assets are lawfully seized that they’re not returned to criminals when there’s a valid basis for them to be forfeited.”
[Jeff Sessions’s Justice Department turns a $65 million asset forfeiture spigot back on]
Two years ago, then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. barred state and local police from using federal law to seize cash and other property without criminal charges or warrants. Since 2008, thousands of police agencies had made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program, which allowed local and state police to make seizures and then share the proceeds with federal agencies.
A Washington Post investigation in 2014 found that state and local police had seized almost $2.5 billion from motorists and others without search warrants or indictments since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Post series revealed that police routinely stopped drivers for minor traffic infractions, pressed them to agree to searches without warrants and seized large amounts of cash when there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
Police then spent the proceeds from the seizure with little oversight, according to the Post investigation. In some cases, the police bought luxury cars, high-powered weapons and armored cars.
“You’re never going to eliminate allegations of abuses,” Rosenstein said, “never going to eliminate mistakes 100 percent. But I think this new policy is going to position us very well to make sure there are very few credible allegations of abuse, and where there are we’re going to make it a priority to follow up.”
The new policy from Attorney General Jeff Sessions authorizes federal “adoption” of assets seized by state and local police when the conduct that led to the seizures violates federal law. Rosenstein said that the department is adding safeguards to ensure that police have sufficient evidence of criminal activity when property is seized. Property owners will receive notice of their rights within 45 days, which is twice as quickly as required by current law. Law enforcement agencies will be required to provide officers with more training on asset forfeiture laws, he said.
State and local law enforcement officials supported the change, but Democratic and Republican lawmakers were skeptical.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) called Sessions’s policy “troubling” and said it would “expand a loophole that’s become a central point of contention nationwide.”
[Jeff Sessions’ defense of civil asset forfeiture, annotated]
Holder tweeted that Sessions’s policy was “another extremist action” and said the Obama administration policy was “a reform that was supported by conservatives and progressives, Republicans and Democrats.”
Kanya Bennett, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the action “outrageous.”
“We are talking about people who have not been convicted of a crime and are often not given a day in court to reclaim their possessions,” Bennett said. “Civil asset forfeiture is tantamount to policing for profit, generating millions of dollars annually that the agencies get to keep.”
At a meeting with county sheriffs on Feb. 7, President Trump made clear to law enforcement officials that he is a strong supporter of the civil asset forfeiture program and told the Justice Department to rescind the Obama administration restrictions.
On Wednesday, Sessions defended the reversal at a meeting with representatives from the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and other law enforcement officials who back the new policy.
“Civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement defund organized crime, take back ill-gotten gains and prevent new crimes from being committed, and it weakens the criminals and the cartels,” Sessions said.
But the ACLU’s Bennett said, “The problem is that we are not talking about criminals.”
“We are talking about Americans who have had their homes, cars, money and other property taken through civil forfeiture, which requires only mere suspicion that the property is connected to a crime,” she said.
I thought that Session was functioning with a 70’s & 80’s mindset – early war on drugs period… Our judicial system declared opiate addiction was a CRIME not a DISEASE… in 1917… So apparently Session’s mindset is back 100 yrs ago in what was referred to as our country’s “Prohibitionist Period”.. That is before alcohol was prohibited and while women still did not have the RIGHT TO VOTE…
Filed under: General Problems
ATTENTION ALL CPP’s: It’s time for a national effort to call a convention under Article V of the United States Constitution, restricted to proposing amendments that will impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress. Please visit the following website for additional information and to sign the petition.
https://conventionofstates.com/
Wasn’t part of the reason for the revolutionary war because of illegal search and seizure??? Excessive taxes??? I agree that illgotten gains should be forfeited AFTER conviction but this should go for government officials who are convicted as well!! Instead they get to keep everything as well as get paid by our tax dollars, usually for the rest of their lives! Somehow people like Jeff Sessions need to be stopped sooner rather than later!
I couldn’t agree more Connie. And add to that ‘Off with their heads!’
And Trumps comment regarding gun confiscation where he said “we need to seize thier guns first before we worry with due process” was beyond alarming. Not shocking though, as the DEA has been doing illegal assets forfeiture on the pain management physicians for some time now,
Connie, I could not have said it better. It appears that we no longer live in a free country but a police-state driven by control freaks (both major parties) who have still not figured out that the government does not “give” or “grant” us our rights but that we are BORN with those rights in which any and all governments can not infringe upon.
Wow…the unadulterated arrogance! ACLU…where are you? Hoping this leads to investigation/discovery being illuminated in the sunshine! Perhaps even a class action … hoping there is a Firm/Atty out there looking to sink his/her teeth into this!
And to the STOOOPID MF’ers that voted for Trump ……………. I edited the rest of this post BECAUSE the person who posted it …did not have the BALLS to put his/her name on it.. If you want to be name calling political hack and post on my blog and expect to get by with doing it anonymously …. THINK AGAIN
BTW…the IP Address of this particular indicates that he/she is from HIGH SPRING FLORIDA…