Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year (2015)

A step in the right direction, but it doesn't seem to have closed the federal loophole. Local police still seize your property and give it to the feds. Feds, on paper, have seized/stolen your property now. Feds give a nice kickback to local dept.

This is an excellent starting point. It's a bit less obvious than bans or restrictions on forfeiture, but it should have a major impact on helping innocent people keep their property. Entering the suit as a third party with a requirement to prove innocence is a bizarre and expensive obligation.

  Eventually, the colonists realized that, even with this 
  small army of paid rat killers, they were failing to make 
  a dent in the rat population.

  They proceeded to Plan B, offering any enterprising 
  civilian the opportunity to get in on the hunt. A bounty 
  was set—one cent per rat—and all you had to do to claim it 
  was submit a rat’s tail to the municipal offices. That 
  way, the government wouldn’t be overrun with bulky rat 
  corpses. “I always think about that,” Dr. Vann says. “Who 
  is the poor guy counting all these rat tails?”

  The Vietnamese, too, were pleased with the arrangement, 
  but not for the same reason. In the beginning, rat-tails 
  poured in as locals slaughtered them by the dozen. Their 
  entrepreneurial spirit took over though, and soon enough, 
  French health officials began to notice a strange 
  phenomenon: tailless rats proliferating in the outskirts 
  of the capital.

  Upon further investigation, it became apparent that the 
  Vietnamese were breeding rats specifically to receive cash  
  for their tails. Reports also suggest some people smuggled 
  out-of-town rats into Hanoi.


  By 1906, there was an outbreak of plague as a result of  
  the infected rat population. At least 263 people died, 
  most of whom were Vietnamese.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat-massacre-1902

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

Good for them. But my understanding is that local cops can still seize an asset, declare that it was really a Federal seizure, have the money assigned to federal government, then the federal government gives most of it back as a bounty. The whole program seems to be a way for the Feds to encourage local police to follow federal priorities rather than local priorities and sadly I'm sure the current attorney general will be looking for ways to do more of that.

Another good idea would be to make the assets property of a third party which does not affect the budget of the department or offer bonuses. Perhaps direct attribution of cash assets to social security/medicare or some similar bottomless money pit, and the direct attribution of all other assets to a professional auction house or pawn. This would prevent the federal government from offering the same incentives that the state government did before.

The purpose of asset forfeiture (if it's legitimate at all) should be, first and foremost, to prevent crime.

Someone needs to update the list in Wikipedia, CT is still listed as allowing it with "Clear & convincing evidence"

got a link to a news story or perhaps the actual law?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...

I don't know why someone downvoted you for this because it was news just the other day that Sessions said this. While I think Sessions is perhaps competent as AG, I don't know why he has such zeal for asset forfeiture. Why can't we have people in these positions who are consistent? We ostensibly have an Administration that wants to support the Constitution and rule of law, and then they go supporting policies and laws that are completely out of line with our Bill of Rights. I don't get it except statism is a brain disorder.

I still say the Obama Administration was even worse--Lynch used her office as a political weapon. Holder should have been prosecuted for Fast & Furious.

It's a mess. I am no criminal, but I avoid cops at all costs just so I don't 'accidentally' get shot.

Also, we need to stop allowing police to have qualified immunity. Their role in US society has been elevated above regular citizens even though they are regular citizens. Their training is "shoot until slide lock" and to always meet force with equivalent and higher force. I live near Minneapolis and I can tell you that after Castile, I thought things would get better, but no, cops are shooting dogs, people, everything! The Burnsville police killed a guy who was whacked out on drugs--the guy had a knife, but he wasn't hurting anyone and when he tried to run away after a botched attempt at getting him out of his car, they shot him in the back for 'reasons.' Their egregious and troubling behavior was later deemed as 'following procedure.'

I think we can see that not reigning in this bad behavior is going to lead to us having to deal with death squads who act under the color of law, such as they have in the Philippines and Nicaragua, and basically every third world country.

are you implying that there is a correlation between civil forfeiture and Murder rate?

Your Hypothetical situation of victim payment NEVER happens

Most Cars seized by the government are because they found some small amount of drugs are paraphernalia in the car and seized it

I can not think of a single instances of what you claim playing out IRL, so I would love to see where your source is that shows cars seized by the government are legally bought off of former drug dealers then seized by the government from the new owners. Even under Asset Forfeiture I do not believe that would be legal.

they are also seizing houses from parents because their child has small amount of pot...

This defense of Civil Asset Forfeiture you have concocted in your mind is weak and not at all inline with reality

The fact that it is even comparable is appalling.

>or if the paperwork looks good on the part of the dealer

Why should that be a defense for the dealer? If the paperwork was good enough to keep the dealer from being liable, then why should the buyer who bought from that dealer also be liable by having the car seized?

>decreased budgets given to law enforcement

They could make do with what they have if they made an honest effort to make do with it.

The cost of a body on the job depends a lot on how you field that body. Equip the officer with the latest and greatest tech the cost of each officer-hour goes up significantly. Don't hire enough people and make people work overtime and the cost of an average officer-hour skyrockets

Look at how small town 4-person departments in low crime areas operate. They can't simply ask for money because the town knows they don't need it.