FORFEITURE LAW KEEPS POLICE HONEST

Constitution Guarantees Rights; Law Safeguards Them.

Missouri police understandably don't like a criminal forfeiture law the
General Assembly passed last year. But their objections underscore why the
legislature was right.

Police would just as soon keep doing things the way they used to - turn
over cash or other valuable property they seized to federal agents.

There are many reasons police prefer federal forfeiture proceedings over
state methods.

Missouri law requires a conviction "substantially related to the
forfeiture" before property can be confiscated. Federal law doesn't even
require a charge be filed, just as long as police believe the property is
connected to illegal activity. The burden of proof is on the property owner
to show the property was obtained legitimately, not on police to prove it
wasn't. Missouri law, in other words, is true to the Bill of Rights.
Federal law tramples the Fourth and Sixth Amendments.

The Missouri Constitution directs forfeiture proceeds to public education,
eliminating the inherent conflict of interest when police keep what they
seize. Federal law returns as much as 80 percent of the proceeds to the
local law agency.

So was it any wonder that Missouri police had the nearest federal drug
enforcement agency's number on their speed dial?

Or, they did until the legislature passed and the governor signed Rep. Jim
Kreider's bill directing police to abide by the constitution. You'd think
that would come naturally to men and women who have sworn to defend the
law. It doesn't.

"A lot of officers believe this is drug money. To not be able to take it
from the defendant or the possessor under current state laws - that sticks
in their craw," says Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Don Crank.

Hear that? Police believe this is drug money. Police act on hunches all the
time; it's part of the job. But they know in every other instance they need
proof to make a charge stick. Seizing property should be no different.

When police find $244,000 in the trunk of a car, it is natural to be
suspicious. But if we allow police to deprive anyone of property or liberty
merely on suspicion, it's not just drug dealers who will be at risk. We all
will be.

Legislators did the right thing a year ago when they stopped police from
playing fast and loose with the rules. They helped law enforcement to
regain credibility it otherwise was losing.

Law enforcement, though, doesn't get it. Greene County Prosecutor Darrell
Moore is trying to end run the law, by claiming cash found in cars is
"abandoned" and thus ought to go into the county treasury. Police officers
are moaning about the money they have "lost," blurring the distinction
between good guys and the bad guys who view other people's property as
their own.

There's a better answer. If someone has $189,000 in a spare tire and police
believe it is ill-gotten, make the case. Convict the crook. Then seize the
cash.

We want drug dealers - not just their money - off the streets. Missouri's
law encourages that.