A BAD SEIZURE LAW

Rensselaer County Legislators Should Repeal The Statute Before It Reaches
Too Far

Good for Rensselaer County legislator Louis Polsinello. The Rensselaer
Democrat is the latest among a growing number of county lawmakers to have
second thoughts about the county's civil forfeiture law enacted last October
that was intended to crack down on drug dealers by seizing cash, vehicles
and other personal property used in the commission of a crime.

No one, least of all Mr. Polsinello, objects to cracking down on drug
dealing. But like so many other tools in the war on drugs, this forfeiture
law has come to mean something else. It has been used to crack down on
prostitution in Troy, for example, and the county district attorney, Kenneth
Bruno, had proposed using it against misdemeanor DWI cases as well. But
Thomas Walsh, R-Brunswick, chairman of the Law and Public Safety Committee,
is among several key Republicans who have declined to support the DWI
proposal out of concern that the forfeiture law may be getting out of
control. Meanwhile, the lawmakers want to see data on just how often this
law has been used to catch drug dealers.

All of this is welcome news. This page has long opposed the forfeiture law
for several reasons. One is its inherent unfairness. That is, only vehicles
that are owned outright are subject to the full force of the law. Those that
have outstanding liens cannot be kept by the police. A second reason is
proportionality. For example, seizing the vehicle of someone found guilty of
loitering constitutes excessive punishment compared with the offense. In one
case, an Albany County man has been waiting for five months to get his 1991
sedan back after his loitering conviction.

There are other inequities. Because forfeiture is a civil proceeding, poor
defendants do not have access to the public defender's office. Thus, they
must either represent themselves in their efforts to win back their
vehicles, or surrender them. Meanwhile, affluent defendants can hire top
legal advice to retrieve their property.

Now Mr. Polsinello and some key Republicans members of the Legislature have
raised the most troubling objection of all: The forfeiture law has opened
the door to uses that the lawmakers never anticipated. It is the classic
case of the slippery slope. The worthy goal of cracking down on drug dealers
has given police a broad new power to wield against an array of minor offenses.

Mr. Walsh says he is reserving judgment on the effectiveness of the
forfeiture law until he sees the data on how it has been employed since
October. But he needn't wait. This law should be repealed at the first
opportunity. It does not send the message to drug dealers that was intended.
Instead, it sends another, more disturbing message -- namely, that due
process and equal punishment under the law are at risk in Rensselaer County.