Civil asset forfeiture: A federal matter?

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In most of the United States, police can seize your property without charging or convicting you of a crime through the process of civil asset forfeiture.

If ever there were a legal process that sounds unconstitutional, it’s civil asset forfeiture. We live in the U.S., which means we are supposed to have rights and be thought of as innocent until proven guilty. Linda Cameron

Monetary gain has always been the goal of many police departments, particularly in small towns. Speed traps, anyone? However, civil asset forfeiture is nothing more than governmental theft. Dave McKenzie

How about this: No forfeiture of assets without due process? No one is a criminal just because police say you are. People are criminals only when a judge and a jury decide they are. Putting cops in the role of enforcer, prosecutor, judge and jury is just a flat-out bad idea. John Letaw

I don’t want to leave the matter of civil asset forfeiture to state and local government. This issue deserves a federal statute. Perhaps something like what follows:

No government office or agency will be permitted to directly benefit from the performance of that agency’s duties and responsibilities through seizure, forfeiture or fines.

Any funds and/or assets surrendered to — or seized by — the government or its agencies in the enforcement of laws and regulations must, in the absence of an actual verdict, be returned to the person(s) from whom it was seized, or the actual titleholder.

If it can be reasonably ascertained that seized or surrendered funds (or assets) are the legal property of an uninvolved third party, the funds and/or assets shall be returned to that party immediately and at minimal expense and effort by said owner. Ed Phillips