Rhode Island
Policing for Profit
Rhode Island earns a D- for its civil forfeiture laws
Low bar to forfeit and no conviction required
Poor protections for innocent third-party property owners
90% of forfeiture proceeds go to law enforcement
State Forfeiture Laws
Rhode Island has awful civil forfeiture laws, earning a D- grade. As in every state, law enforcement need only show probable cause to seize property. But for property to be returned in Rhode Island, it is up to owners to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that their property is not forfeitable. Individuals making innocent owner claims also bear the burden of proving that they had no involvement in the illegal use of their property in order to recover it. Finally, Rhode Island law enforcement agencies retain 90 percent of all forfeiture proceeds, a generous incentive to wield their forfeiture powers.
Law enforcement agencies in Rhode Island are required to report their forfeitures to the state treasurer and attorney general, who then aggregate the data and provide annual reports to the Legislature. Disappointingly, these reports are not available online. Law enforcement agencies reportedly forfeited more than $8.3 million between 2009 and 2014, averaging almost $1.4 million per calendar year.
State Law Sources
| Standard of proof | Government must show probable cause for seizure and the owner must show that the property is not forfeitable by a preponderance of the evidence. 21 R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5.04.2(p). |
| Innocent owner burden | Owner. 21 R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5.04.2(p). |
| Profit incentive | 90 percent. 21 R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5.04(b)(3). |
| Reporting requirements | Agencies are required to provide annual forfeiture reports to the state treasurer, and the treasurer and attorney general must submit aggregate annual forfeiture reports to the state Legislature. 21 R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5.04(d); 7 R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-4.1(e). |
| Other sources | U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs. (2015). Google forfeits $500 million generated by online ads & prescription drug sales by Canadian online pharmacies [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/google-forfeits-500-million-generated-online-ads-prescription-drug-sales-canadian-online. Office of U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. (2013). U.S. Department of Justice grants RI cities flexibility to use Google settlement funds to stabilize pensions [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/us-department-of-justice-grants-ri-cities-flexibility-to-use-google-settlement-funds-to-stabilize-pensions. |
Rhode Island is the worst state for federal forfeiture, with over $248 million in Department of Justice equitable sharing proceeds from 2000 to 2013.
State Forfeiture Data: Reported Forfeiture Proceeds
| Year | Property Type | Local Police | State Police | Other Agencies | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | |||||
| Currency | $861,770 | $138,389 | $1,409 | $1,001,567 | |
| All Other Property | $546,588 | $15,214 | $0 | $561,802 | |
| Total | $1,408,358 | $153,603 | $1,409 | $1,563,370 | |
| 2010 | |||||
| Currency | $388,261 | $49,751 | $2,073 | $440,085 | |
| All Other Property | $496,234 | $37,125 | $0 | $533,359 | |
| Total | $884,495 | $86,876 | $2,073 | $973,444 | |
| 2011 | |||||
| Currency | $530,706 | $70,339 | $1,693 | $602,738 | |
| All Other Property | $472,184 | $250,702 | $0 | $722,887 | |
| Total | $1,002,890 | $321,042 | $1,693 | $1,325,625 | |
| 2012 | |||||
| Currency | $513,626 | $246,161 | $1,818 | $761,605 | |
| All Other Property | $1,135,429 | $44,387 | $0 | $1,179,816 | |
| Total | $1,649,055 | $290,548 | $1,818 | $1,941,421 | |
| 2013 | |||||
| Currency | $491,665 | $133,850 | $1,480 | $626,995 | |
| All Other Property | $540,396 | $84,368 | $0 | $624,764 | |
| Total | $1,032,061 | $218,218 | $1,480 | $1,251,759 | |
| 2014 | |||||
| Currency | $631,533 | $134,184 | $8,375 | $774,092 | |
| All Other Property | $407,390 | $69,881 | $0 | $477,271 | |
| Total | $1,038,923 | $204,065 | $8,375 | 1,251,363 | |
| Grand Total | $7,015,782 | $1,274,351 | $16,848 | $8,306,981 | |
| Average per year | $1,169,297 | $212,392 | $2,808 | $1,384,497 |
Federal Equitable Sharing
Rhode Island ranks 51st—dead last—on equitable sharing, thanks in no small part to a large 2013 payout from the Department of Justice’s equitable sharing program. Between the 2000 and 2013 calendar years, agencies in the Ocean State received more than $248 million in DOJ equitable sharing proceeds, but most of that came in a single year. In 2013, five Rhode Island agencies split a $229 million payout from the DOJ—the spoils of participating in a task force whose investigation resulted in a $500 million settlement agreement between Google and the federal government. Former Attorney General Holder also took the unusual step of allowing the East Providence and North Providence police departments to use $49.2 million and $20.6 million, respectively, of the proceeds to backfill police pension funds—a practice generally prohibited by the DOJ. Finally, Rhode Island agencies received almost $5.2 million in Treasury Department equitable sharing proceeds over the 2000 to 2013 fiscal years.g almost $325,000 a year.
| Year | DOJ (calendar years) | Treasury (fiscal years) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $572,149 | $8,000 |
| 2001 | $406,444 | $673,000 |
| 2002 | $163,988 | $45,000 |
| 2003 | $897,074 | $12,000 |
| 2004 | $1,605,107 | $3,458,000 |
| 2005 | $880,906 | $584,000 |
| 2006 | $1,871,089 | $6,000 |
| 2007 | $984,973 | $6,000 |
| 2008 | $1,766,691 | $63,000 |
| 2009 | $1,242,657 | $0 |
| 2010 | $1,399,315 | $98,000 |
| 2011 | $4,339,622 | $0 |
| 2012 | $547,548 | $89,000 |
| 2013 | $231,417,276 | $132,000 |
| Total | $248,094,838 | $5,174,000 |
| Average Per Year | $17,721,060 | $369,571 |