NM End of Civil Asset Forfeiture Didn’t Increase Crime: Study
In 2015, New Mexico legislators ended most civil asset forfeiture, the process that lets police keep cash or property they seize, even if they never charge the owner with a crime, so long as they suspect that it’s linked to criminal activity. High-profile lawsuits and press attention prompted some states to reexamine their forfeiture laws. New Mexico sheriffs and prosecutors asked the governor to veto the bill. Eliminating civil forfeiture, they argued, would hand the bad guys a win and put public safety at risk, ProPublica reports. “You’ll get less law enforcement,” predicted the chair of the sheriffs’ association, Ken Christesen, who noted that police departments use forfeitures to help fund their budgets. Criminal organizations would grow richer and more powerful, Christesen warned, if they got to hang on to the cash, cars and other property police could no longer seize from them. “The end result of this,” he said, “is the cartels are going to ramp up their money laundering and cash exchanges in the state of New Mexico tenfold.”
Five years after New Mexico effectively banned civil forfeiture, those fears remain unrealized, says a new study from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that has been advocating reforms to forfeiture laws. The predicted rise in crime and drop in arrests has not materialized, says the study, based on analyses of FBI data. Arrest and offense rates in New Mexico remained essentially flat before and after the 2015 law went into effect. That’s based on an examination of crime overall, as well as a specific set of offenses: drug possession, drug sales, and driving under the influence. Nor, the study shows, are civil forfeitures key to cutting off the flow of millions of dollars to major fraudsters and criminal enterprises, as defenders of the practice often claim.
Related:
JUSTICE MANUAL 9-115.000 – Use And Disposition Of Seized And Forfeited Property | Supreme Court Could Stop The Federal Government From Not Paying Legal Fees | John Oliver Civil Asset Forfeiture Clip | Sheriff Indicted for Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse | Data Center Expansion: The Legal Implications of Rapid Global Growth | Watch Cops Seize Combat Vet’s Life Savings [RARE FOOTAGE] | Will DOJ’s Civil Forfeiture Reform Mean More Accountability? | Legal Due Diligence Checklist for Data Center Acquisitions | Zoning & Permitting for Data Centers: Navigating Local Regulations | Airbnb ‘tenant from hell’ who squatted for 500 days and wouldn’t leave unless owner payed $100,000 moves out | Reforming Civil Asset Forfeiture | Dirty, Sexy Civil Asset Forfeiture | Data Center Digital Twins: Contractual Obligations & IP Ownership | Colocation for Satellite Ground Stations: Regulatory & Infrastructure Challenges | John Oliver Cannot Believe Cops Use Civil Forfeiture Laws To Rob American Citizens of Thousands of $ | Feds seized nearly $700 million from FTX founder Bankman-Fried | An Airbnb Tenant From Hell – Business Insider | Comedy: Law & Order Civil Asset Forfeiture Unit | Politician Victim of Civil Asset Forfeiture | eDiscovery Hosting: Minimizing Litigation Risks in Data Centers | Resilience and Security: Protecting Data Centers as Critical Infrastructure | Trump pardon unwinds some Manafort forfeitures | Civil Asset Forfeiture Part 1 | Mitigating Legal Risks Through Robust Data Center Contracts
Additional Reading:
Federal Raids and Asset Forfeiture: What Happens When the Feds Seize Your Property | Magazine Articles on Forfeiture Abuses | How States Are Using the Courts to Fight Police Taking People’s Money and Property | Professional Corporate Governance Lawyer Legal Services | U.S. seeks $5.4 mln from Russian businessman Malofeyev’s account | Civil Asset Forfeiture “Has Created Serious Problems” | Forfeiture Reporting Requirements: A Comprehensive Guide | Professional Due Process Violations Legal Services | Since 2007, the DEA has taken $3.2 billion in cash from people not charged with a crime | Lessons from Landmark Civil Rights Cases | Policing For Profit:How Civil Asset Forfeiture Has Perverted American Law Enforcement | Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year | How Police Departments Use Civil Forfeiture to Collect Billions | Are law enforcement agencies abusing civil asset forfeiture? | About Rucci Law – Rucci Law | Inside the Courtroom: Civil Forfeiture | The Continuing Perversity of Civil Asset Forfeiture | U.S. seeks to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to North Korean hacks | Racketeering Forfeiture Defense Strategies | Asset Forfeiture is Theft: An Overview of the State and Federal Programs | A Comparison of Federal Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedures: Which Provides More Protections for Property Owners? | Responding to the Complaint for Forfeiture In Rem | Motion to Suppress in Forfeiture Cases | Supreme Court says states can’t impose excessive fines, and delivers a win to former heroin addict in pivotal ruling
