Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jun 2000
Source: Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2000 The Kansas City Star
Contact:  1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108
Feedback: http://www.kansascity.com/Discussion/
Website: http://www.kcstar.com/
Author: Karen Dillon, The Kansas City Star,  This article is an update to the KC Star's TO PROTECT AND COLLECT Series
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n682/a02.html

PRESSURE TO CHANGE POLICE SYSTEM OF PROPERTY SEIZURES BEING APPLIED IN CONGRESS

Two members of Missouri's congressional delegation say they will look for 
ways Congress can stop state and local police agencies from evading state 
laws when seizing drug money.

A spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, a St. Louis 
Democrat, said a reform forfeiture law going into effect in August failed 
to address the handoffs of seizures from local to federal agencies.

"We'll look to see what options are present in the next Congress (to fix 
the problem)," said Sue Harvey, Gephardt's spokeswoman. "This is something 
that we hoped we would have addressed with the (new law)."

U.S. Rep. Karen McCarthy, a Kansas City Democrat, said her staff already 
had begun working on legislation to address police keeping drug-money 
forfeitures, which she sees as a conflict of interest and a threat to civil 
liberties.

"I feel very strongly that the seizure laws need to be quite clear and also 
that the individual rights must not be violated," McCarthy said.

Most states have passed laws blocking seized property from going directly 
back to police, because they do not want police profiting from their own 
efforts. Many states designate seizures to be used for other purposes, such 
as education.

Last month, however, stories published by The Kansas City Star showed that 
police agencies in every one of more than two dozen states checked by the 
newspaper circumvented their own laws and kept millions of dollars in 
seizures for themselves.

When police seize money or property, they hand it over to a federal law 
enforcement agency, which keeps a cut, usually 20 percent, and returns the 
rest to police.

Some states are attempting to block the handoffs, but McCarthy said federal 
legislation was necessary.

"We need to figure out what we can do to try to get this rectified, because 
I think the only solution is at the federal level," McCarthy said.

Passing federal legislation will be no easy feat, however.

One drawback is the forfeiture reform law that Congress just passed in 
April. Many say Congress will be reluctant to reopen a subject that was 
bitterly debated before a bill finally passed.

Another obstacle is the political clout of law enforcement and the Justice 
Department, which put heavy pressure this spring on Senate negotiators to 
weaken the bill.

"There is a substantial police lobby against doing anything in this area," 
said U.S. Rep. Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat and member of the 
Judiciary Committee.

McCarthy said she did not care.

"What law enforcement is doing is superseding state law by coming up to the 
federal level, and we are just going to have to take on this lobby and try 
to get the job done," she said.

The Justice Department did not respond to requests for interviews.

In the Missouri governor's race, Democrat Bob Holden, currently state 
treasurer, said he would call a statewide summit to bring together 
prosecutors and law enforcement at every level and work out the differences 
between state and federal forfeiture laws.

"We need to see how we could better coordinate and understand the 
intricacies of state and federal law," said Richard Martin, Holden's 
campaign manager.

U.S. Rep. Jim Talent, Holden's Republican gubernatorial opponent, did not 
comment for this story.

Gov. Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, would not comment on the subject for more 
than a year but finally said through a spokesman last week that he stood 
behind the Missouri Highway Patrol. Nonetheless, Carnahan, who is running 
for U.S. senator, said if elected he would take a hard look at federal and 
state forfeiture laws and try to work out the conflicts between them.

Carnahan's opponent, Sen. John Ashcroft, and Kit Bond, Missouri's other 
U.S. senator, both Republicans, would not comment for this story.

Forfeitures, however, already are becoming part of the campaign in the 
revitalized race in Missouri's 6th Congressional District, where the 
incumbent, Democrat Pat Danner, recently announced she would not run again.

Steve Danner, who is running for his mother's job, said he would push for 
federal legislation if elected.

"Unfortunately, to me it appears that the real culprits of this may be 
federal officials at high levels," Danner said. "This is something we have 
got to stop on the federal level."

Both Danner and McCarthy were in the Missouri General Assembly in 1993 when 
state laws were passed to try to stop the handoffs.

John Dady, a Republican, called for Congress to repeal the 1984 federal law 
that allowed the handoffs.

"When a state law enforcement agency claims ignorance of state forfeiture 
laws, we should remind them as they do the citizens that ignorance of the 
law is not an excuse," Dady said.

State Sen. Sam Graves, a Tarkio Republican, and Teresa Loar, a Kansas City 
councilwoman and Republican, said more funding needed to be provided to law 
enforcement to halt the practice.

Several other 6th District candidates, including Republican Jeff Bailey and 
Democrat Sandra Reeves, agreed that remedies needed to be found to stop 
police from evading state laws.

To reach Karen Dillon, projects reporter, call (816) 234-4430 or send 
e-mail to  ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D