Give Me Back My Stuff!
According to a new Goldwater Institute study:
Arizona law enforcement agencies have used a legal tactic known as civil asset forfeiture to confiscate over $64.5 million of private property since 2000, a new Goldwater Institute report documents. Civil asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to confiscate property connected to a crime without ever filing criminal charges against the property owner.
The report shows asset forfeitures constitute a sizable percentage of many agency budgets. Statewide, nearly one of every five dollars received from confiscated property—almost $11 million—went directly into the pockets of prosecutors and police in the form of employee compensation.
The report argues that the due process clauses in the
