Source: Cincinnati Enquirer (OH)
Contact: http://enquirer.com/editor/letters.html
Website: http://enquirer.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 7 Sept 1998
Author:  Anne Michaud

POLICE HOLDING DRUG RAID LOOT

Millions not being spent on deterrence

Law enforcement agencies throughout Ohio are sitting on millions of dollars
seized from drug dealers instead of spending it to put more of them behind
bars.

Agencies explain the surpluses by saying they want to keep reserves or
because they can't find anything to spend the money on.

But one of the state's top law enforcement officials says the whole point
of drug seizure and forfeiture laws is to reinvest proceeds in
drug-fighting equipment and programs.

The Cincinnati Enquirer examined drug money in the three biggest agencies
in Ohio's six largest counties, and three smaller counties in the state's
southwestern corner.

As a group, the agencies have taken in $33.5 million since 1993. They spent
or invested $26 million. They have a balance of $7.5 million, or about 22
percent of the money confiscated.

Cincinnati and Cleveland police and the Hamilton County sheriff top the
chart for unspent drug money. Cincinnati has an average balance of
$1,015,499 at the end of each year; Cleveland's is $949,966; the sheriff's
is $828,840.

The balances are growing each year, as agencies continue to confiscate more
than they spend. The unspent money languishes, even while departments
request annual budget increases and fight for higher taxes on the ballot.

What's more, few agencies are meeting the only spending requirement written
into state law: that a percentage of drug money confiscated each year be
used for anti-drug education in the community.

Among the Enquirer's findings:

The Cincinnati Police Division should be spending up to 100 times more on
community drug education. The department spent $1,000 a year from 1993 through
1996, when drug receipts indicate spending should have reached $119,810
annually.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul has invested $1.2 million of drug money in
interest-earning accounts, including U.S. Treasury bills. According to the
sheriff, only
the interest is returned to the central drug fund. The rest appears to be
kept in separate
bank accounts.

Agencies provide detailed records of the money and property they confiscate. But
nobody monitors the spending, including such potential watchdogs as the
state attorney
general, state auditor or state Office of Criminal Justice Services.

The ramifications of unspent money go far. With leftover money each year,
Cincinnati could put five more police officers on the street, and Hamilton
County could pay the salaries of three more.

The large drug money balances and investment accounts worry Ted Almay,
superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and
Investigation.

"That's a lot of cash," Mr. Almay said. When told about the investments, he
responded, "I've never heard of anybody doing that."

Drug forfeiture laws emerged from a belief that drug dealers were not being
punished forcefully enough. Dealers were hiding assets in other people's
names, and they had the money to mount well-paid legal defenses. Or they
could start up business again after serving jail time.

A 1984 federal law allowed police to seize the "tools" of the drug trade,
including cash, cars and things bought with drug profits: homes, boats,
jewelry, artwork.

Also, the law was intended to promote cooperation among law enforcement
agencies, which can share the confiscated money and goods.

Ohio, like other states, copied federal law in 1990 and began allowing
local agencies to collect drug money, even when federal agents were not
involved in the capture.

"We were finally able to tap into the assets of the bad guys, and, in turn,
use them to fight drugs," said former Assistant Police Chief Ted Schoch,
who oversaw drug money for Cincinnati police until July. He now heads the
police training academy.

Cincinnati police confiscate an average $1.4 million annually in state and
federal seizures; the Hamilton County sheriff, $661,947. Cleveland police
collect $711,145 each year in state cases alone.

With the money, many departments contribute to regional narcotics teams.
Departments also supply undercover operations with training, offices,
vehicles and electronic surveillance equipment. Often, the drug money
serves as a ready pool of money to match federal grants.

Except for salaries, Cincinnati pays for its entire 17-officer undercover
street corner unit with the drug money. The department also finances its
pharmaceutical diversion unit, which polices phony prescriptions, and the
department's share of the multijurisdictional Regional Enforcement
Narcotics Unit.

"The whole idea is to make sure the money is being put back into fighting
crime so the citizen is the beneficiary of it," Mr. Schoch said.

The department does not pay salaries with the money, which is permissible
under state law but not federal law. Most departments keep two funds: one
for cases charged under federal law, the other for state law.

Mr. Schoch said that relying on drug arrests is too irregular to pay
salaries. "This money is not guaranteed. It could stop today," he said.

Cincinnati police have maintained an average balance of $375,993 since 1994
in the state forfeiture account alone. The unused balance could put five
more officers on the street and still leave a federal fund balance of
$487,211.

But Mr. Schoch argued he liked to keep a surplus on hand. Offices for
undercover agents are leased, for example, and he has to cover future
payments.

Also, when the federal or state government has a grant to bestow, the
department can dip into the drug fund to match the grant without jumping
through political hoops.

Recently, the department was able to contribute to a $40,000 piece of
hospital equipment -a videocolposcope -- that aids in rape investigations,
Mr. Schoch said.

While state law gives departments broad spending discretion, it requires
just one minimum payment from law enforcement agencies: It says anti-drug
education programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) must
receive 10 percent of the first $100,000 an agency receives, and 20 percent
of any amount over that.

Most law enforcement agencies in Ohio are not meeting those legal
requirements, according to the Enquirer's investigation. Mr. Schoch said he
didn't know there was such a requirement and instructed his staff to look
into it. They came up with a 1992 solicitor's opinion that said the
department must contribute only part of the "forfeitures" it seizes, not
the "contraband."

The opinion's author, assistant city solicitor John Hanselman Jr., said
contraband is what is seized immediately at the scene, and forfeiture is
property that police are able to trace as the fruits of drug profits, such
as a painting or a bank account.

But no one is keeping track of which is which.

"It's all put in the same fund," Police Spc. David Kelly said. "I don't
think there's ever been a breakdown."

Other law enforcement agencies also fail to distinguish between
"contraband" and "forfeiture" money in their public reports. Using their
total receipts, the Enquirer found most agencies are not meeting the law's
requirements.

For example, Cleveland police spent $47,452 in 1995 when its total receipts
indicate it should have spent $166,943. Columbus, Akron and Toledo police
did not show any drug education donations when they submitted annual
reports to the attorney general.

Clermont County Sheriff A.J. "Tim" Rodenberg said he has increased DARE
spending as a way to make better use of a $128,304 surplus collected by his
office and a regional drug task force he administers.

The Office of Criminal Justice Services warned Sheriff Rodenberg, he said,
that the surplus was too high. "They want that money to keep moving. They
don't want it just sitting there," he said.

In his nearly two years on the job, he has searched for new, drug-related
ways to spend the money: on a K-9 unit, for DARE graduation awards, to buy
Breathalyzers.

Other departments said they like to keep money on hand, as much as
$100,000, to use as "buy money" or "flash money" for undercover agents
posing as drug customers.

Annual reviews by the state auditor look at a small sample of transactions
to make sure they are following accounting procedures. A spokeswoman for
the office, Kate Buchy, said it cannot vouch for the propriety or legality
of each expenditure.

"It would be impossible to look at every transaction," she said. "The idea
is we're looking at a representative sample."

Two other departments, those of Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor
and Hamilton County Sheriff Simon L. Leis Jr., are investing in
certificates of deposit, $175,110 and $1.1 million, respectively.

Sheriff Leis refused an interview to explain his department's expenditures
and investments, and the unspent balance of $828,840.

But he did supply spending records. They show he has built several
crime-fighting units with the money, including a marine patrol, a SWAT team
and a computer crime division. Area agencies depend on the sheriff's
helicopter for search and rescue.

Over five years, the sheriff also paid $120,209 to build, carpet, tile and
equip gymnasiums; $27,987 for kilts, bagpipes, drums and other expenses of
the Sheriff's Bagpipe and Drum Corps; $18,137 to construct bathrooms;
$12,246 for landscaping.

"The statutes are quite clear in that these funds are expended at the
discretion of the law enforcement agency," Sheriff Leis wrote in response
to a request for an interview.

Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin, who is often at odds with the
sheriff over spending, said he trusts the sheriff is using the money for
good programs.

But Mr. Dowlin said he would use some of the money to expand drug court,
which fast-tracks drug offenders through the court system if they
participate in rehabilitation. It costs about $200,000 to equip a courtroom
for a year and an additional amount for the treatment services associated
with a drug court.

Money also could be used for rehabilitation, said John Young, who retired
in July after eight years as director of Hamilton County's Alcohol and Drug
Addiction Services. Ohio law recommends police consult with someone in his
position about the spending.

"We have waiting lists for virtual every service in our system," Mr. Young said.

The underspending worries Ohio House Speaker JoAnn Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg.

"If the question is dollars not being used for a specific purpose that was
the intent of the legislature, that would cause me some concern," she said.

Most law enforcement officials said nobody has ever questioned their use of
the drug money. That is possibly because no one is watching. Agencies file
annual reports to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ohio attorney
general. The reports do not have to give details, just total dollars.

At the state level, filing the report is strictly voluntary. Some
departments simply don't send them. And nobody in the attorney general's
office reads the reports.

"There is really no entity that monitors that spending beyond the press and
local governments," said Mr. Almay of the state investigations bureau, a
branch of the attorney general's office.

During its last session, the General Assembly amended the law to eliminate
copies of annual reports for the Senate president and House speaker.

Not that it mattered.

"When I took over the speaker's office, there were boxes of these things
around, and I had no idea what they were and why they were here," Ms.
Davidson said.

"If we find more oversight is needed, we've got to have a better method
than boxes in legislative leaders' offices."

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Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson