Over the past 20 years, the police have seized over 30 billion dollars worth of assets. Many of these assets are used to fund law enforcement agencies, while others are kept as-is for evidence purposes and more.
Unfortunately, this may become an incentive for police to bypass laws and seize items to fund their department. In fact, many individuals see civil asset forfeiture as something akin to a robbery because many departments fail to create a process to evaluate and oversee these seizures.
With that being said, here is more about how the police handle seized goods and why a proper tracking process is required:
A Typical Scenario with Asset Seizure
Asset seizures occur more commonly than many people may realize. It is as simple as stopping someone with an out-of-state license plate or stopping them for minor traffic violations and then creating reasons to search the vehicle. They then search the car, find suspicious items or large cash on the assumption that it is drug-related, and send it to the federal government forfeiture.
As a result, they get back 80% of what they sent, and the suspect drives off without their assets, without criminal charges, or any contraband seized.
For the suspect, getting their assets back can be tough. In many cases, their attempts are thwarted with rejections because of technical reasons. Even if they can, they are presented with various legal fees and costs. The return of their assets involves complex legal proceedings that might not be worth their time.
The Problem with Civil Asset Forfeiture
The biggest cause of such issues is that many of the seized assets are sold to fund law enforcement. The simplicity of seizing an item over the grounds of a “criminal” act and selling them is incredibly popular.
With police budgets being cut, the motivation to carry out these “robberies” has increased significantly. It also does not help that the inability to determine whether these seizures helped any investigation made such nefarious activities more common.
Solving the Civil Asset Forfeiture Problem
As mentioned already, one of the major causes of such seizures is the lack of proper tracking to see if the evidence gathered actually supports investigations. For that reason, the best solution to this problem is for law enforcement agencies to invest in proper tracking software. This will allow them to keep track of the assets—where they came from, what is done with it, what information it contains, and other important details. Most importantly, the software in place should show how it ties to ongoing investigations.
It can demotivate officers from seizing assets for money and make gathering evidence for different cases far more effective.
Conclusion
Law enforcement agencies are plagued with seized goods not meant for investigative purposes but financing their departments. As such, many innocent people have had their assets seized and lost money for no good reason, with no way to get them back.
To ensure this problem does not plague your department, it is vital to use evidence tracking software. This will allow your precinct to track seized goods and see whether they have served a purpose in investigations or whether they are seized for unlawful or unethical reasons.
PMI Evidence Tracker™ is a powerful evidence management tool for law enforcement agencies. It is affordable, flexible, and easy to use. If you are looking for evidence tracking software in the US for your department, check out the tool we have for you!
