FYI...
The Legislative Analyst's Office has just published the following
report:
Potential Impacts of Recent State Asset Forfeiture Changes
Asset forfeiture refers to the seizure and transfer to government
ownership of cash and other items suspected of being tied to crime. The
proceeds from these seizures are generally used to support various state
and local law enforcement activities. Chapter 831 of 2016 (SB 443,
Mitchell) made various changes to the state's asset forfeiture processes
related to drugs. For example, it limited law enforcement's ability to
pursue certain types of asset forfeitures at the federal level and
required criminal convictions for certain seizures at the federal and
state level. SB 443 also required our office to provide data about the
economic impact of these changes.
Despite various data challenges that make it difficult to determine the
economic impact of these changes, we identified the following
trends:
California generally receives more than
$100 million annually in asset forfeiture distributions.
State and federal asset forfeiture
distributions have fluctuated in recent years.
Californias share of U.S. Department of
Justice asset forfeiture distributions has significantly declined since
2017.
The number of cases initiated and
adjudicated at the state level generally declined.
The value of assets seized and amount
distributed in state cases increased until 2016.
Distributions to most agencies generally
declined until 2018.
Distributions generally reflect a small
share of agency budgets.
While not solely attributable to SB 443, data suggests that it
potentially reduced distributions received by California. However, it is
not possible to estimate the size of this potential impact given the data
challenges. As such, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions.
This report is available using the following link:
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4128?utm_source=laowww&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4128
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