INTERIM. Texas Tops in Asset Forfeiture.

Audrey Redford, a doctoral fellow with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, makes these points about asset forefeiture in Texas:

• Texas is #1 in civil asset forefeiture according to the Institute for Justice
• Average annual total of seized assets:  $41.6 million
• $540.7 million siezed in the last decade
• It will get worse. last week DOJ announced it was resuming its Equitable Sharing Program, a civil asset forefeiture sharing program

How are asset forefeiture proceeds disributed in Texas?

• 70% goes to law enforcement
• Supplements salaries
• Pay for new equipment
• “also used for other important policing business like lavish trips to Hawaii, gambling trips to Vegas, and booze and a margarita machine.”

3 Solutions for Texas:

• Look to Florida. Require police to file criminal charges before seizing property.
• Look to Montana and New Mexico. Require a criminal conviction before assets can be seized.
• Look to New Mexico. “Eliminated the revenue-seeking incentive for law enforcement by requiring that all proceeds go to a general fund instead of directly to law enforcement.”

Dallas Morning News | Audrey Redford: How police can seize your property without a trial