FINALLY, POLICE HERE DECIDE TO FOLLOW DRUG-MONEY LAW

It took far too long, but the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners
finally has come down on the right side in the issue over drug-seizure
money. The board has ordered the Police Department to obey the Missouri law
that directs law-enforcement agencies to turn over most money and property
seized in drug cases to education.

The board's example of following the statute should be a model for all
police departments in Missouri -- and elsewhere.

Members of the police commission took another positive step in their
meeting on Thursday. They decided not to contest a lawsuit brought by
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon over $3.5 million in cash and property
held by the Police Department. By law, which the department now will
follow, the assets should have gone to public education.

Even though the issue appears to have been resolved in Kansas City, some
law enforcement agencies in Missouri are not complying fully with the
forfeiture law. This evasion is depriving schools of their rightful share
of drug-related seizures.

State Sen. Harry Wiggins, a Kansas City Democrat, told the police
commission in a letter Monday that he would reintroduce legislation in the
2001 General Assembly to force law enforcement to conform to the law. He
sponsored an identical measure this year. It passed the Senate but was
rejected in the House in the final minutes of the session.

"I cannot believe the highly respected law-enforcement agencies in Missouri
would want to become involved in a questionable scheme of asset forfeiture
after drug seizures either by evading what Missouri law intends or through
some devious process diverting funds through the federal law to controvert
Missouri law," Wiggins told the board, adding there may be some confusion
in interpreting the statute.

Wiggins summed up the problem that has marred the credibility of law
enforcement in Missouri.

An investigation by The Kansas City Star revealed that police have been
sending seized assets to a federal law-enforcement agency. This agency then
transfers part of the assets back to the police.

That practice skirts the state law that requires the assets be used mainly
for education, not law enforcement. A conflict of interest occurs when law
enforcement directly benefits from asset seizures.

Law enforcement, by evading the law, has placed itself in an embarrassing
and untenable position. It is forcing action to get the General Assembly to
require taxpayer-supported agencies to follow state law.

That is incredible. No law-enforcement agency should defy the law in this way.

The General Assembly, with the leadership of Wiggins, should take any
action necessary to mandate compliance with the drug-seizure law.