The U.S. Justice Department halted its adopted-forfeitures
program in early 2015 out of a sense that state and local law-enforcement
agencies had been using the federal program to retain a greater portion of
seized property, including cash, than state laws permit. Asset forfeiture had
grown since the 1980s largely as a strategy in combatting drug traffickers, yet
the agencies themselves benefited in being able to spend the cash. Besides this
conflict of interest, the federal-state dynamic here demonstrates federalism in
action, though perhaps not as strongly as the system of government allows.
The full essay is at “Police
Snatching Property.”
