POLICE SAVE BY USING CASH FROM FORFEITURES

How Law Enforcement Uses Drug Money To Fight Crime

In Oakland County, drug forfeiture funds have been used to buy Taser stun
guns (above) in addition to a mobile command post (below). In Wayne County,
Dearborn police used $40,000 of their drug forfeiture cash to start a drug
court. Chesterfield Township Police Chief Steve Robbins hopes to use $5,000
in drug forfeiture funds for drug-testing kits to be sold at cost to the
public.

Somewhere in the Michigan prison system, there may be an inmate whose
illegal drug profits will be spent in January by the Chesterfield Township
police.

Police Chief Steve Robbins said he will ask his township board to spend
$5,000 of the department's drug forfeiture funds for drug-testing kits to
be sold at cost to the public.

The cops won't ask for names or addresses of anyone who requests one of the
$6 to $12 kits, which can be used to check if a family member or friend is
on drugs.

"We're not out to arrest anyone. This is about drug prevention," Robbins
said. "All it takes is a few drops of urine and you could have the results
in five minutes. It's like a pregnancy testing kit."

The drug kits are the latest example of how police are spending money they
confiscate under a 15-year-old Michigan law that allows them to seize cash,
cars, houses and other property that was obtained through narcotics profits.

Other Metro Detroit police departments, including Shelby Township,
Dearborn, Flat Rock and Huron Township, offer similar kits.

Prosecutors file civil lawsuits against drug dealers to get their property.
If a judge OKs the seizure, prosecutors then turn the money over to the
police agency that investigated the dealer.

Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga said his office returned nearly $1.5
million in drug forfeiture money last year to county police agencies. The
take so far this year is more than $700,000.

"We're waiting on one case now that's worth $900,000," he said.

In Oakland County, Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer said drug
forfeiture funds have been used to purchase in-car video cameras,
computers, weapons for the South Oakland Narcotics Intelligence Consortium
(SONIC), training, intelligence equipment and a public seminar on drugs in
the workplace, among other things.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Department has used drug forfeiture funds to
buy Taser stun guns, a mobile command post and an all-terrain armored vehicle.

Oakland Sheriff Michael Bouchard has used forfeiture funds to defray
one-time costs such as the armored vehicle and mobile command unit. This
year, the department has spent about $500,000 of its forfeiture funds.

"The taxpayers have a much higher level of protection" because of these
purchases, said Bouchard, who would rather get drugs off the street than
seize the money after the drugs have hit the street. "This allows us to
have drug dealers fund critical (police) operations."

In Wayne County, Dearborn police gave $40,000 of their drug forfeiture cash
to the district court to start a drug court, where convicted persons get
counseling and treatment instead of jail.

Lt. Amos Horton, who heads the County of Macomb Enforcement Team (COMET), a
police consortium that investigates drug dealing, said his unit gave
$25,000 in drug money to Macomb Circuit Court officials to start a similar
drug court.

Previous purchases with drug forfeiture funds have included video
surveillance equipment and a drug-sniffing dog. The dog was inexpensive but
the animal's specialized training cost several thousand dollars, Horton said.

"One hundred percent of what we spend (from the drug forfeiture funds) has
to be used ultimately" in fighting drug trafficking, he said.

In Chesterfield Township, Chief Robbins said the drug kits he hopes to sell
to the public can test for a variety of narcotics, including marijuana,
cocaine and amphetamines. The cost will depend on how many tests the buyer
wants.

"And if someone doesn't have the money, we'll give them away, so long as
they can prove they're residents," Robbins said.

Melinda Gough, principal of L'Anse Creuse High School-North, whose students
come mostly from Chesterfield Township in northern Macomb County, said she
thinks the idea has merit.

"It helps kids. I'm for it," Gough said.

Robert Bennett, a Chesterfield Township father of a college freshman and a
10th-grader at Anchor Bay High School, said providing such drug kits makes
the community safer.

"It's not something that I would have a need for with my kids," said
Bennett, who believes the kits can be a great tool for parents who suspect
their children use drugs.

Marlinga said the largest Macomb County forfeiture he can recall was a
Roseville case about six years ago. A judge ordered the confiscation of
$1.2 million in drug profits from a dealer, part of it in gold coins.

Because drug forfeiture actions are civil lawsuits rather than the criminal
cases that prosecutors generally deal with, Marlinga said his office takes
a 10 percent cut of the drug forfeitures for its expenses. The money is
placed into the county's general fund.

That's still a pretty good deal for the taxpayers, Marlinga said, because
privately hired lawyers usually would demand a much higher percentage.

Marlinga said he would resist any attempt to pay prosecutors with drug
forfeiture money.

"As much as I want the bad guys to lose their property if they obtained it
illegally, I think it would be inappropriate for the prosecution to be the
beneficiaries of any of that money," Marlinga said.

Detroit News Staff Writer Edward L. Cardenas contributed to this report.