When state Sen. Aaron Bean saw a video of a TV comedian making fun of civil asset forfeiture laws, he didn't think it was funny.
“The state could seize your property if you were involved in a crime. You didn't get all the rights you needed,” Bean said.
Bean, a conservative Republican from Nassau County, filed a bill last year to end the practice. It didn't fly. Cops think the forfeiture law is a good tool.
But such laws provide too much incentive for the police to push the envelope. While not the worst, Florida has had many cases where citizens had property seized and only got it back, if at all, with great difficulty. Florida got a D+ ranking from the Institute of Justice, which studied the civil asset forfeiture laws nationwide.
Over a period of six years, according to the institute, Florida police seized more than $19 million in cash each year, in addition to vehicles and real property.
“Twenty-five states and the federal government direct up to 100 percent to law enforcement funds,” the institute said. “These funds may be spent largely at law enforcement’s discretion, subject only to loose controls and little to no oversight. From the little that is publicly reported, these funds are sometimes even spent on salaries, overtime and benefits, creating a still more troubling conflict of interest.”
So, Bean got together all those involved -- cops, lawyers and others -- and worked out something they believed would work.
April 1, Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 1044, the bill sponsored by Bean that makes significant reforms in the laws on civil asset forfeiture in Florida. It also provides for better reporting – so the state can get a handle on how much property cops are seizing and under what circumstances -- as well as audits.
A key provision is that you have to be involved in a crime and arrested before the police can seize your property. If not convicted, you can get your property back.
One problem had been that police were stopping people with large sums of money on them and seizing the money, under the tenuous supposition that it must be drug sale profits.
The next step is for Congress to change the federal law. When states like Florida tighten up their laws, the cops just act under the much more generous federal law that provides for “equitable funding” -- basically a kickback.
The Department of Justice inspector general found that the police department in Sunrise, Florida, was keeping sloppy records for its equitable funding money, violating its own procedures.
Asset forfeiture seems to be like another well-intended law, the RICO law. RICO was meant to be used against organized crime but lawyers soon found many other ways to employ it against ordinary citizens.
The federal government already has 4,500 criminal laws and 300,000 regulations that carry a criminal penalty. The problem with crime is not a lack of laws, and laws that encourage misbehavior deserve to be expunged.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
