Pubdate: Mon, 02 Mar 2009
Source: Denver Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2009 Denver Daily News
Contact:  http://www.thedenverdailynews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4274
Author: Mike Krause
Note: Mike Krause directs the Justice Policy Initiative at the 
Independence Institute, a Golden-based libertariant think tank.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

HOLD ONTO YOUR ASSETS

Asset Forfeiture Bill A Return To Legalized Government Piracy

Seven years ago, the Colorado legislature passed reforms to the 
state's civil asset forfeiture laws, implementing important 
safeguards to protect citizens from having their property unfairly 
seized by overreaching government agencies. Now those reforms are 
under assault this year.

Asset forfeiture laws in Colorado prior to 2002 were spawned out of 
the worst excesses of the war on drugs in the 1980s and '90s and 
turned the best practices of American justice upside down. People's 
cars, cash and other property could be seized without conviction, or 
even charges being filed and the burden of proof to retrieve unjustly 
taken property was dumped onto the property owner. It was a disaster 
for due process.

In 2002, Colorado lawmakers passed, and then governor Bill Owens 
signed, a law that included a requirement that someone actually be 
convicted of a crime before their property is seized by government 
(with some sensible exceptions such as when a person flees the 
jurisdiction) and removed some of the direct financial incentives for 
police agencies to go after citizens' assets by requiring that the 
profits from forfeiture proceedings be spent under the supervision of 
responsible officials, such as county commissioners, rather than 
spent at the whim of whatever agency seized the property.

Support for these reforms was both overwhelming and bi-partisan. The 
House vote was 51-11 and the Senate vote was 23-10. The bill's 
sponsors included then Rep. Shawn Mitchell, a conservative 
Republican, and then Sen. Bill Thiebaut, a liberal Democrat.

At the time a broad coalition including the Independence Institute, 
the ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers and the 
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC), all came together 
in support of reforming civil asset forfeiture.

The bill, HB 1404, was an excellent example of both Democrat and 
Republican lawmakers, and a sometimes disparate band of civil 
libertarians, property rights advocates and free market proponents 
all coming together in agreement that there are indeed limits on the 
state's power over its citizens.

Unfortunately, House Bill 09-1238, sponsored by Colorado State Rep. 
Joe Rice, would gut the reforms of 2002 by, among other things, 
repealing the requirement that someone be convicted of a crime before 
their property can be seized, re-instating the profit motive for 
seizure by allowing the seizing agency to keep the lion's share of 
forfeiture loot, and ensures both secrecy and a lack of 
accountability by repealing asset forfeiture reporting requirements.

In other words, HB 1239 is an invitation to misgovernment.

For instance, Texas still allows police to use civil forfeiture 
without a criminal conviction, or in some cases, even filing any 
charges. The result has been legalized roadside banditry in the Lone 
Star state. A Feb. 7 investigative report by the San Antonio Express 
News found that police in just one Texas town seized property from 
"at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008" while filing charges 
against fewer than half of those people. According to the Express 
News piece, "Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell 
phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car 
that was being driven through town."

A December 2008 report by the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal 
Justice notes: "What was once a crime fighting and law enforcement 
tool has become a profit-making, personal account for some law 
enforcement officials. Instances of abuse in both the confiscation 
and spending of asset forfeiture proceeds have increased at alarming rates."

These are very recent examples of the kind of egregious practices 
that led Colorado lawmakers to rethink civil asset forfeiture in the 
first place

The 2002 reforms brought a degree of fairness and justice to asset 
forfeiture practices in Colorado, while still allowing police to use 
forfeiture to take property away from actual criminals. Hopefully 
lawmakers will think twice before returning Colorado to legalized 
government piracy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom