- Did you know that it's legal for the government to steal?
That's the simplest description of an actual law known as
Civil Asset Forfeiture.
It lets prosecutors take permanent ownership
of a person's property without having to charge them
with let alone convict them of a crime.
Now we live in a system where people are theoretically
presumed innocent until they're proven guilty,
but this process allows the government to treat
your property differently, often assuming it is guilty
until you can prove it innocent
of being connected to a crime.
This awkward arrangement means that the state isn't
prosecuting you, but your stuff.
It leads to court cases like the State of Utah versus $500
or the State of Utah versus a 2007 Black Mazda.
Around the country, forfeitures become so lucrative
for government agencies that, according to
the Washington Post, prosecutors now take more property
from people than burglars do.
Focusing on the property rather than the person
creates a perverse incentive for prosecutors,
rather than focusing on building evidence of a crime
and punishing the perpetrator, prosecutors and police
become motivated by money.
- [23rd Agent] Are there any large sums of money
over $5,000 in cash in the vehicle?
- [Policeman] How much money you got?
- [Policeman] Any large amounts of U.S. currency in there?
- I'll take whatever cash you got in there
and is that a Slurpee in the cup holder, what flavor?
Grape, nevermind.
Do you know what?
I will take it, I'll take it.
(audience laughs)
In many cases, no criminal charges are filed
against the property owner at all.
When they are filed, prosecutors often agree
to drop the criminal charges if the person
allows the government to keep the seized property.
That's not justice, it's corruption.
Libertas Institute has been fighting civil asset forfeiture
in Utah for several years, starting with our investigative
report in 2013 showing that the Attorney General's office
deceived the entire legislature into passing a law
that undermined property rights and due process,
thereby making it easier for prosecutors
to forfeit property.
Since that time, police and prosecutors have teamed up
to fight our reform effort and preserve the status quo.
Two years ago we proposed a change in the law
requiring the government to furnish detailed information
about each forfeiture.
That proposal became law and earlier this year we gained
our first glimpse of how forfeiture is working in Utah.
The results are, perhaps, unsurprising,
though certainly alarming.
98% of forfeitures were for alleged drug offenses,
almost every single one
and 86% of the property taken was cash.
The average amount was just above $1300.
Now imagine if you had a thousand dollars taken
by the government due to its belief that
you were gonna buy drugs even though you weren't.
Would you pay a lawyer five thousand dollars to fight
the forfeiture in hopes of reclaiming only one thousand?
Clearly not.
This explains why most forfeitures in Utah
are not contested, most people simply walk away
and let the government keep the property.
Crime shouldn't pay, it's true, but there's another type
of forfeiture, criminal forfeiture, which lets
the government take property from convicted criminals.
Those who are presumed innocent should not have
their property permanently taken by the government
until they're proven guilty.
- Rough night, huh?
Ah, well, it's about to get a lot rougher.
That's 2500 in cash and you want it hanging out
in somebody's glove box, huh?
Answer me.
- Civil Asset Forfeiture needs to be reformed in Utah.
Unfortunately, our tax dollars are funding those
who are fighting against that reform.
The Attorney General's office,
police chiefs, sheriffs, county prosecutors, and more.
Innocent until proven guilty, it's a bedrock American
principle, one that Civil Asset Forfeiture violates.
It's time to put a stop to legalized theft.
For Libertas Institute, I'm Connor Boyack.
(upbeat tune)
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