A new report from the Drug Policy Alliance details numerous abuses and breaches of the law in California’s civil asset forfeiture practices, particularly in small cities within Los Angeles County.
Civil asset forfeiture can allow police to seize large amounts of cash and property by merely suspecting it was involved in a crime. Between 2006 and 2013, the city of Pomona—which has fewer than 150,000 residents—took in over $14 million in seizures. That’s more than the revenue of Oakland, Fresno, Long Beach, and Bakerfield put together, despite the fact that they have 11 times the population.
The report looks at forfeiture over the last several years, with data combed from California Public Records Act requests, FOIA requests to the Justice Department and Federal Treasury Department, and interviews with current and formal law enforcement officials.
California itself has somewhat strict asset forfeiture laws, requiring a conviction and “clear and convincing evidence” that property was involved in a crime in order for police to keep large amounts of cash. But, like police departments across the country, California law enforcement can easily skirt state laws by using the federal Equitable Sharing program, which allows them to turn cases over to the Justice Department and keep up to 80 percent of seized assets for themselves.
According to the report, between 2005 and 2013, the state’s revenue from state seizures remained flat, while their revenue from federal forfeitures more than tripled.
They also found that police were prioritizing cash seizures over drug seizures and other more serious crimes—because drugs have to be destroyed and provide police no direct profit. The city of South Gate, for example, had some of the highest per capita asset forfeiture revenue in the entire state—along with a violent crime rate 31 percent higher than the state average. They have well below the national average of police officers per 1,000 residents to deal with this, yet continue to increase the number of officers assigned to asset seizure.
Several police departments were found factoring future seizures into their budget, which is prohibited by law. In the city of Laverne, police have anticipated revenue from $250,000 to $700,000 every year since 2009. Meanwhile, as overall police numbers dropped, the department assigned even more officers to seizing on drug task forces.
In other instances, cities failed to disclose their forfeiture income in their budget, which is required under federal law. They also found unaccounted-for expenditures in their paperwork and other forms of “false or inconsistent reports to the Justice Department.”
Some of the other worst offenders included Beverly Hills, Gardena, Irwindale, La Verne, Vernon and West Covina.
Read the full report here.
