While a new Department of Justice policy on civil seizures may change how many law-enforcement agencies handle forfeitures, it won’t make much difference in La Plata County.
A forfeiture is when law enforcement seizes cash, vehicles or other property it claims was used in a crime or was purchased with money earned in a crime.
Critics have said many seizures deny due process.
Attorney General Eric Holder’s new policy applies primarily to a program called Equitable Sharing.
It allowed police and sheriff departments to seize cash and other property and then have the seizure “adopted” by a federal agency, such as the DEA or FBI.
This allowed the local law-enforcement agency to keep 80 percent of the proceeds, and critics say it encouraged law enforcement to seize items with inadequate cause.
“After reading the announcement and some interpretations, I don’t think it will change much for us,” said Pat Downs, director of the Southwest Drug Task Force, which pursues the most forfeitures in La Plata County. “Most of our seizures come out of joint investigations with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and those aren’t included in this.”
The task force includes representatives from the Durango and Ignacio police departments, the Bayfield Town Marshal’s Office and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office as well as the DEA.
Seizures that are part of an actual joint federal-local investigation will not be affected by the new policy.
Holder also excluded public safety items such as illegal firearms, ammunition, explosives and property associated with child pornography from the policy, which have accounted for only a tenth of 1 percent of total seizures since 2008, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
State programs also allow civil forfeitures. Only 50 percent of the proceeds come back to the local agencies in Colorado, Downs said in an earlier story, and the state process is much more complicated.
“We just don’t use them all that often,” Downs said. “In 2014, we were involved in maybe three to five seizure processes.”
The largest forfeiture in 2014 was the arrest of Joseph Fitapelli and 13 others in a methamphetamine case in March.
In addition to $450,000 in meth, officers seized about $10,000 in cash from Fitapelli’s car and the contents of storage lockers full of stolen goods, including firearms with the serial numbers removed.
“We’re very cognizant of the potential for abuse,” Downs said. “We don’t seize things just because we can seize them. We wait until there are criminal charges and that kind of thing.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
