Critics Of Illinois Forfeiture Law Push Reforms
(CBS) -- State law that allows police agencies to seize cash and property of suspected drug dealers should be revised, the authors of a new report say.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Illinois Policy Institute say that, between 2005 and 2015, law enforcement in Illinois confiscated at least $319 million in cash and property from people.
ACLU Criminal Justice Policy Attorney Ben Ruddell says the government should have to file charges against someone before being able to take cash, cars and other property from those suspected of obtaining that property through illegal means.
Right now, he says, "The burden is on you to prove your innocence. If you do nothing, you will lose your property."
Police officials like the law.
Lockport Police Chief Gary Lemming says taking that money and other property away helps take away the "fuel" driving street gang violence.
And, he disputes the contention that people who've had their property seized do not get due process.
He says that, if unusually large sums of money are found in a car during a traffic stop, the driver is given a court date in which she or he can prove the money was obtained legally and not through drug activity or some other criminal behavior.
"Many times these people never show up for court," Lemming says.
Lemming says he also likes the law because the money his department gets from property seized allows Lockport to buy one or two new squad cars a year.
He says the department gets 65 percent of the value of property confiscated by his officers.
But, that alone, the ACLU's Ruddell says, only provides more of an incentive for police to go after peoples' property.
Ruddell says reforms will be proposed in the Illinois General Assembly in January "to make it a fairer process for property owners who are innocent of a crime to get their property back."
"Right now, the deck is stacked against them and in favor of the government," he says.
