As counties across the country have been dealing with ice storms this winter, one jurisdiction was found to be indulging in a different kind of ice. According to Orlando Weekly, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, Florida, was found to have spent more than $90,000 on an ice cream truck using forfeiture funds. This purchase was uncovered as part of a campaign by state auditors to shame public officials for wasteful spending.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was able to use forfeiture funds like this because Florida law enforcement retains up to 75 percent of forfeiture funds, as detailed in IJ’s report, Policing for Profit. From 2009 to 2018, Florida law enforcement agencies forfeited at least $392 million under state law. Between 2000 and 2019, they generated an additional $646 million from federal equitable sharing, for a total of at least $1 billion in forfeiture revenue. Equitable sharing allows state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with the federal government to seize and forfeit property under federal law—and receive up to 80% of the proceeds—regardless of state law.
This isn’t the first time a police department has used forfeiture funds to buy a cool treat for themselves. In Massachusetts, a police department was found to have used forfeiture funds to purchase a Zamboni. But departments have also used such funds to buy summery treats like a margarita machine. Another unusual spending spree was done by the Denver Police Department, which used forfeiture funds to buy $120,000 of video equipment, which it used to make videos it entered into a local Emmy competition, and it also spent $22,000 developing an app for iPhone and Android.
Frivolous purchases like these have been brought to further light as Florida and 26 other states have enacted new reporting requirements since 2014. But, so long as civil forfeiture exists and law enforcement can keep the proceeds, abuses will continue to occur. More states should follow Maine and New Mexico’s examples by full abolishing civil forfeiture.