Policing for Profit: First Edition

Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—all without so much as charging you with a crime. Unlike criminal forfeiture, where property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law, with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property.

Americans are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but civil forfeiture turns that principle on its head. With civil forfeiture, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent.

Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture chronicles how state and federal laws leave innocent property owners vulnerable to forfeiture abuse and encourage law enforcement to take property to boost their budgets. The report finds that by giving law enforcement a direct financial stake in forfeiture efforts, most state and federal laws encourage policing for profit, not justice.

Policing for Profit also grades the states on how well they protect property owners—only three states receive a B or better. And in most states, public accountability is limited as there is little oversight or reporting about how police and prosecutors use civil forfeiture or spend the proceeds.

Federal laws encourage even more civil forfeiture abuse through a loophole called “equitable sharing” that allows law enforcement to circumvent even the limited protections of state laws. With equitable sharing, law enforcement agencies can and do profit from forfeitures they wouldn’t be able to under state law.

It’s time to end civil forfeiture. People shouldn’t lose their property without being convicted of a crime, and law enforcement shouldn’t be able to profit from other people’s property.

• Map: Policing for Profit State Grades
• Table: Civil Forfeiture Proceeds Distributed to Law Enforcement
• Table: Standard of Proof in State Forfeiture Laws
• Table: Innocent Owner Burden in State Civil Forfeiture Laws
• Graph: Deposits to Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund, 2001 to 2008
• Graph: Net Assets of Departments of Justice and Treasury Forfeiture Funds, 2000 to 2008
• Graph: Equitable Sharing Payments to States from the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund, 2000 to 2008
• Table: Boost in Equitable Sharing Payments from Stricter State Laws
• Model Asset Forfeiture Legislation
• Poll: Public Opinion and Civil Forfeiture