With Little Evidence, Pennsylvania State Police Seized $600,000 From Drivers
An investigation by The Appeal and Spotlight PA found that troopers in three counties have taken big money from drivers, many of whom were never charged.
Joseph Darius Jaafari, Joshua Vaughn Oct 01, 2020
The Power of Sheriffs: Explained
In September 2018, President Trump stood in front of 44 sheriffs as he began another diatribe against the New York Times and other media outlets that had published stories criticizing his administration. The sheriffs applauded. The meeting was originally scheduled to be between the sheriffs and officials from ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. […]
Jessica Pishko Jan 04, 2019
Is A Philadelphia Agency’s Seizure Of Vehicles A New Form of Civil Asset Forfeiture?
The city’s experiment with civil asset forfeiture was supposed to end, but the practices of its parking agency and some in state law enforcement suggest that police may be turning to other forms of property confiscation.
Ryan Briggs Nov 14, 2018
Rhode Island Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Faces an Unusual Foe: A Democratic Attorney General
Law enforcement’s power to seize property suspected of being used in criminal activity regardless of whether the owner has been convicted of a crime has generated mounting public scrutiny of the practice, known as civil asset forfeiture. Both Nebraska and New Mexico have abolished civil asset forfeiture in recent years, and the Department of Justice under the […]
Daniel Denvir May 10, 2018
NYPD Agrees To New Rules Limiting Its Seizures of New Yorkers’ Property
For decades, the New York Police Department has subjected people it arrests to a labyrinthine and bureaucratic process for retrieving their seized property. Often, poor New Yorkers — many without the legal assistance needed to navigate this process — give up on their property instead of trying to get it back. In a rare disclosure to the public, the […]
Max Rivlin-Nadler Feb 16, 2018
Civil Asset Forfeiture: Explained
In our Explainer series, Justice Collaborative lawyers and other legal experts help unpack some of the most complicated issues in the criminal justice system. We break down the problems behind the headlines—like bail, civil asset forfeiture, or the Brady doctrine—so that everyone can understand them. Wherever possible, we try to utilize the stories of those affected […]
Waseem Salahi, Jessica Brand, Callie Heller Jan 03, 2018
NYPD is one delete button away from losing its civil forfeiture records
Criminal charges are absent from 85 percent of all forfeiture cases in the city.
Carimah Townes Oct 20, 2017
Indiana law that allows law enforcement to seize vehicles of people not convicted of crime unconstitutional
An Indiana vehicle seizure law that allows police and prosecutors to seize vehicles before the owner has been convicted of a crime has been ruled unconstitutional. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled that seizing vehicles before an official forfeiture action violated the Constitutional right to due process. “The Court concludes that the statutory provisions […]
Larry Hannan Sep 01, 2017
The future of civil asset forfeiture in Albuquerque at stake in mayoral race
In 2015, New Mexico became the first state to ban civil asset forfeiture, also known as policing for profit. Law enforcement cannot take people’s valuables and use the civil court system to gain ownership of them. State law now stipulates that cash and property can only be seized by law enforcement and forfeited when the original […]
Carimah Townes Aug 17, 2017
Court rejects prosecutor’s unlawful use of seized funds
The Illinois Supreme Court has smacked down a prosecutor who created his own private police force with civil asset forfeiture dollars. Former LaSalle County State Attorney Brian Towne created the task force in 2011. According to Forbes, “Using the state’s civil forfeiture laws, which allow law enforcement to seize — and keep — property even if the owner has never been criminally charged, […]
Larry Hannan Aug 07, 2017
Las Vegas area cops seizing millions of dollars from low-income people of color
Between July 2015 and June 2016, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) made $1.9 million from civil asset forfeiture, the law enforcement practice of seizing cash and property from members of the public and forcing them to legally forfeit those belongings. Now, evidence shows that the funds came from low-income, predominately non-white neighborhoods. According to […]
Carimah Townes Jul 11, 2017