First, years ago, the primary reason police seized assets was to break up illegal drug supply lines. Today, however, that goal has been conflated with budgetary considerations that should not be driving decisions about the deployment of police resources.
Second, as a department's use of this independent source of funding grows, its dependence on, and accountability to, the taxpayers goes down.
Third, if a department's prestige depends in part on how much is seized each year, this gives police chiefs an incentive to push their officers to become more aggressive during raids, make unnecessary raids and cut legal corners.
Here is an extreme example of how a thirst for such funds can pervert law enforcement. Some years ago, Donald Scott owned a valuable 200-acre ranch in Malibu, Calif. One morning, 30 agents, led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, conducted a raid based on faulty rumors that Mr. Scott was growing marijuana plants. During the raid, Mr. Scott was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies. A Ventura County district attorney's report on the raid concluded, "The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was motivated, at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government."
It is time for federal and state legislators to shut down the conflict-of-interest loophole that allows police departments to profit from their official duties - at times, at the expense of the citizens they are hired to protect.
Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. His e-mail is fraserr@erols.com.
