How Does Civil Asset Forfeiture Secure Our Rights?

When the Left agrees with the Right

Civil liberty-minded organizations from the right and the left criticize legalized theft by the governments known as Civil Asset Forfeiture.

From the Right – The CATO Institute: Policing for Profit video

Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice: Review of the Department’s Oversight of Cash Seizure and Forfeiture Activities – March 2017

Excerpt from the Inspector General’s report:

” While the Department views asset forfeiture as an important law enforcement tool, concerns have been raised about its use. Advocates of asset forfeiture reform, including Members of Congress and public interest groups, have expressed concerns that the ability to use forfeiture revenues to fund law enforcement activities may incentivize the Department and state and local law enforcement to use asset seizure and forfeiture beyond the purpose of deterring and punishing criminal conduct and in a manner that creates risks to civil liberties. This concern is heightened because Department law enforcement officers have the authority to seize and forfeit cash or property without independent judicial oversight and without charging the owner or possessor of the cash or property with a crime. Advocates of reform also have argued that the Department’s historical, but now largely proscribed practice of “adopting” state seizures for federal forfeiture inappropriately allows state and local law enforcement to circumvent their own state laws so that they can obtain a greater share of forfeiture proceeds than they would receive otherwise.”

Action