DOVER, Del. (AP) - A bipartisan group of Delaware lawmakers is introducing legislation to eliminate the practice of seizing property thought to be associated with criminal activity, even if the property owner has not been convicted, or even arrested, for a crime.
While sponsors of the Senate bill say there is no evidence that Delaware law enforcement agencies are abusing such civil forfeiture laws, the process through which police agencies receive the proceeds of property that is seized and sold is shrouded in secrecy.
“In America, you shouldn’t be able to take people’s stuff without proving they did something wrong,” chief co-sponsor Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover, said Wednesday.
The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit libertarian public interest law firm, recently ranked Delaware’s civil forfeiture laws among the worst in the country for failing to protect property rights while encouraging what it calls “policing for profit.”
Last week, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation requiring police in most cases to make an arrest before seizing a person’s non-cash assets. Under Florida’s new law, a police agency would also have to pay a filing fee to seize property and post a bond that would go to the property owner if he or she prevails in a forfeiture proceeding.
Civil forfeiture reform bills have also been introduced in the past year in other states, including Maryland and Pennsylvania.
“Civil asset forfeiture is a concern that is bringing Republicans and Democrats together throughout the United States,” said Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the Delaware chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “…. We think that the current system challenges two basic American values, which are the right to private property and the right to due process. When the government is given the power to seize and keep assets, hold assets, when somebody is not even arrested for a crime, let alone convicted of a crime, we think that is an overstepping of power.”
The bill in Delaware has drawn support from across the political spectrum, including conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats, open-government groups and the ACLU.
In eliminating civil asset forfeiture, the Delaware legislation also would do away with the state’s Special Law Enforcement Assistance Fund, or SLEAF, a pot of forfeiture money overseen by a group of law enforcement representatives that is not subject to the state’s open-records and open-meeting laws.
The bill also strengthens and clarifies rules regarding criminal asset forfeitures, requiring in most cases a conviction for violation of a law subject to forfeiture before property used in or derived from the crime is forfeited. It also provides safeguards for innocent partial or joint owners of property subject to criminal forfeiture.
“This is not anti-law enforcement … this is pro-freedom,” said Bonini, adding that he has spoken with Delaware State Police about the measure.
Kimberly Chandler, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which oversees the state police, said agency officials will need to review the legislation before commenting.
One concern for supporters of the bill is that it might lead police to partner more often with federal law enforcement authorities so that they can share in assets seized under federal civil forfeiture laws.
Meanwhile, a separate bill was introduced Wednesday in the House that would make the SLEAF subject to Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act. In doing so, however, it would allow a police agency to submit an application for SLEAF funds under a cloak of secrecy while the oversight committee determined whether the application could be exempt from FOIA. If the committee determined that the application was not exempt and was instead a public record, the police agency could withdraw it within 10 business days, keeping the information private.
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