from:alt.conspiracy As, always, Caveat Lector Om K ----- Click Here: <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:617079">Police bypassing courts to hang onto drug money</A> ----- Subject: Police bypassing courts to hang onto drug money From: Jon Roland <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">jon.roland@const itution.org</A> Date: Mon, May 22, 2000 8:16 PM Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <A HREF="http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20000522_1439.html">http://abcnews.go .com/wire/US/ap20000522_1439.html</A> Report: Police bypassing courts to hang onto drug money KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Police across the country sidestep state laws to ensure that millions of dollars seized in drug raids and traffic stops remain in police hands, The Kansas City Star reports. In a yearlong investigation, The Star examined more than two dozen states to determine how law enforcement officers handled forfeited drug money and property. The newspaper found that in each state examined, police used federal law enforcement to circumvent their own state laws and keep most of the money for themselves. Law enforcement officials say the practice is not illegal and that police would be handcuffed in fighting crime without that money. The Star reported in the first of a two-part series Sunday that police retain most of the money by calling a federal agency during a drug seizure instead of going to state court. An agency such as the Drug Enforcement Administration accepts the seizure, making it a federal case. The DEA keeps a cut of the money and returns the rest to police. As a result, state courts are bypassed. Consequently, millions of dollars that lawmakers have designated for education, drug treatment programs and other purposes instead stay with police, The Star reported. For example, a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper stopped a driver for tailgating. A police dog signaled drugs were in the car, where troopers found $105,700 and 2 grams of marijuana. The driver denied owning either the drugs or the money. The highway patrol gave it to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which returned more than $80,000 to the state patrol, even though North Carolina law generally requires sending seized money to education. Federal officials say police have the proper motives for using federal law. "I don't think police agencies are in the business of profiting," said Jerry McDowell, director of the Justice Department's asset forfeiture and money laundering division. Beyond the money diverted from public funds, critics also are troubled by the weakening of a basic civil liberty -- the Bill of Rights protection against improper search and seizure. Owners who want to recover seized property usually face a much tougher road in federal court than they would under their own state laws. The federal hand-offs also create an opportunity for police to profit from their own actions, critics say. "If you think that by conducting an illegal search and seizing people on the highway you can increase the number of times where you can take assets, it is going to become a big motivating force," said Ira Glasser, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Forfeitures have come to mean a lot of money for police. The Justice Department says that from October 1996 through March 1999 it accepted $208,454,000 in seizures from state and local police -- much of which was returned to those agencies. Police say they need the money if they are to continue the war on drugs. If they lose forfeiture money, they say, local governments are unlikely to replace it. Copyright ©2000 ABC News Internet Ventures. Click ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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