Delaware

 

Grades
Forfeiture
Law Grade
 State Law Evasion Grade  Final
Grade
Delaware

 

Forfeiture Law
Delaware has terrible civil forfeiture law, scoring an F on the law grade.  The state’s final grade is pulled up to a C only by limited use of equitable sharing (an evasion grade of A) to date.  In Delaware, the government only needs to show probable cause to forfeit property.  If an innocent owner objects, the owner has the burden of showing that the property was wrongfully seized or not subject to forfeiture.  These problems are compounded by the fact that law enforcement in Delaware keeps 100 percent of the revenues generated by civil forfeitures, creating a perverse incentive to seize as much property as possible.  Fortunately for Delaware citizens, law enforcement in the state does not seem to have used forfeiture as aggressively as the law permits.  It is hard to know the extent of forfeiture in Delaware, though, because there is no provision under state law that requires data to be collected or reported.

 

 

Forfeitures as Reported to LEMAS (Drug-related only)

Total Assets
Forfeited

Assets Forfeited per
Law Enforcement Agency

1993

$1,514,806

$73,837

1997

$1,277,969

$37,118

2000

$1,114,772

$39,792

2003

$1,938,634

$60,347

 

Equitable Sharing Proceeds from the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF)

Proceeds Returned to State

FY 2000

$449,374

FY 2001

$461,175

FY 2002

$422,941

FY 2003

$173,222

FY 2004

$606,678

FY 2005

$791,700

FY 2006

$130,302

FY 2007

$478,764

FY 2008

$813,464

Total

$4,327,620

Average per Year

$480,847

 

Freedom of Information Data
No Data Available; Not Required to Collect

 

Learn how states were graded and how data was collected

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