Here's two blatent cases that happened this week in San Antonio I think (was in the SA paper):
1. A woman walking down the street found a bag that had a handgun (no make or model mentioned)and $250,000. Here's the sidline story: she had been plagued with bills from a recent kidney transplant, and needed a lot of money to pay them. She found this money and did the good thing by turning it over to the Police as found property. The police told her that if nobody came forward to claim the money, she could have it, but not the gun. They ran the gun numbers, and it came back clean. Six weeks later, the lady finds out nobody has claimed the money, so she wants it back. The police say no because it is drug money. They say they found cocaine residues on the 100 dollar bills. The DEA concurs and now the police get to keep the cash. True story as reported in the San Antonio Express this past Saturday.
Anybody who has been alive in the past 10 years can probably attest that there aren't many 100 dollar bills that don't have cocaine residues, as users use the rolled up bills to snort the stuff. I bet if I went into the bank and checked their bills, I'd find some that had cocaine residues too. Could I sieze the money for it? Fact is that the money probably was drug money. Fact is also that nomatter what kind of money it is, the LE agency must not keep it unless they have irrefutable evidence that it is drug money, and that evidence cannot be somthing that is so unspecific or circumstantial as to apply to any large sum of money.
2. The SAPD decides to raid a house in Suburbia on a tip from a confidential informant. They bust down the door at 8:00 AM. Inside they find the family just getting up, and everybody still in their pajamas. They HANDCUFF everybody to include the 5YO boy, the 7YO boy, and the parents. They herd everyone into one room. Officers are tearing up all the property and are finding nothing. The officer in charge tells the husband to call the dog. The dog is a 10 month old puppy and is hiding under the bed of the child because it is scared. The man calls the dog, thinking that the cop just wants everyone in one room so there isn't any suprises. The dog comes into the room, and the OIC shoots the dog in the head right in front of the kids. The cops never find anything, and later find out their informant isn't all that good. To add a little insult to injury, one of the cops on the way out picks up a guitar in the living room, and makes up a song about killing the dog. There isn't much positive about this story except that the guy now has an awesome lawyer who is getting very good press. The SA police chief isn't even denying this, and is actually punishing the officers involved. There will probably be a multi-million dollar settlement, but that's OK, because they'll just bust someone else to make up the lost money!
I've worked in this game before. I used to help train narcotics dogs to be sold to departments nation-wide. I found out they get up to $3K for a certified dog. I wondered why since a lot of them are just mutts rescued from the pound and subsequently trained. The guy who does this tells me that if they're lucky, the dog will pay for itself the first good bust in asset forfitures, and then the department is looking to make a profit thereafter.
I heartedly object to the Asset forfiture laws because the principle is wrong. Nobody should have a financial incentive to enforce the laws. A cop's first job or duty(IMHO) is to promote a safety attitude. Not to be a revenue officer for the city or county they work for. In my small town, cops have to make a quota of speeding tickets (5 a week). This is wrong, but they do it to keep their jobs. When I worked for the State park inside the city limits, we were not allowed to keep any "fine money" from tickets issued, and in a year and a half guess how many tickets were issued in that park? Three. Yep there were tens of thousands of visitors, and plenty of incidents, but very few required a ticket to solve the problem. In many cases the "wrong-doers" were just ignorant of the rules, and so when informed, they came into compliance. In a lot of cases, these city cops hate to make quota's and it is a practice that should be addressed before the city leaders. It isn't the cop's fault since he kinda likes feeding his family too. This kind of practice needs to be adressed by YOU the citizen, not him the employee of you the citizen.
