And, like all programs, it is abused and the funds are used for reasons other than to fight more crime.

Within the article you will find this disgusting bit information-------- ""Among the violations were using seized money to pay on a prosecutor’s student loans and allowing a prosecutor to live rent-free in a confiscated house for years, records show.""

No wonder law enforcement and the DAs in Oklahoma do not want the forfeiture laws changed.

Law enforcement wants to keep the forfeiture laws intact just as they have been because they use that money----along with federal grants---- to buy their "toys", you know, SWAT gear, automatic weapons, and fancy SUVs.

Next they will be buying Drones and tanks.

The police love these laws for obvious reasons.

On a personal note, I have a lady friend whose husband was killed in a car accident in 1987. At the scene of the accident, she managed to secure her dead husband's billfold. She always knew her husband carried several hundred dollars and sometimes over a thousand dollars in cash. His billfold was empty.

When she inquired about the fact that his billfold was empty with no money, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol who was on the scene told her that it was legal for them to do that. At the time she was distraught and naïve and she accepted this excuse.

That money most likely made a direct leap from her dead husband's billfold to one of the patrolmen's pocket on the scene. They have no shame.

The proposed modification for these forfeiture laws would not allow seized money or property to be forfeited unless the suspect is convicted. Is that not reasonable?

rewdiazepam

It would be really nice that when a law is made that there be times that it be reviewed to see if it's working the way that it ought to

I would love to see people 'out' of law enforcement on boards to review laws periodically and have discussions of what is and what isn't working and why and then to be able to change what isn't working perhaps with some sort of a voting or something that everyday people could and would address

Once a law is in the books it's so hard to make any change...It's ridiculous at times

And people within law enforcement or govn need to be accountable for misusing laws...It's done all the bloody time... And we're in a good part of the world....x

Public officials and politicians are often crooks

The hardest part about all of the experiences with "forfeitures" is knowing that the same people who enforce the laws are often involved with personal gain from their work.

Accountability belongs in all of our laws, our enforcement, our governing agencies, and our way of life.

We've lost it and to regain it will take power of people, public accounting of all funds, transactions, laws, and policies.