Report: Hawaii’s Police Property Seizures Ripe For Abuse
Asset forfeiture is a controversial practice that has many across the U.S. calling for reform. A new report says Hawaii has some of the worst laws when it comes to protecting citizens.
Hawaii has some of the worst civil asset forfeiture laws in the U.S., according to a report released this week by the .
The state was given a grade of D-minus.
Asset forfeiture is the practice of police seizing personal property under the suspicion that it鈥檚 tied to a crime.
People don鈥檛 necessarily have to be convicted to have their home, car or business taken away from them.
Some states, including Hawaii, only need to show that there鈥檚 a preponderance of evidence of wrongdoing to seize someone鈥檚 property. It鈥檚 often up to owners to then prove their innocence or risk losing their property.
That鈥檚 why the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit, libertarian law firm, says civil asset forfeiture threatens the rights of Americans.
But the nonprofit also says the practice is ripe for abuse because law enforcement typically gets to keep the property and the proceeds from selling it.
That, of course, gives police an incentive to seize more stuff, the institute argues, and the value of property taken over the years seem to bear it out.
Check out this video to see just how much money we鈥檙e talking about. (It鈥檚 in the billions.)
The Institute for Justice report, , goes into more detail about the practice and the laws governing it.
The nonprofit graded all the states based on three criteria: the financial incentive for law enforcement, the standard of proof needed for a taking and the protections for innocent property owners.
Hawaii received a D-minus, along with most other states and the U.S. government. On average, law enforcement agencies in the islands seize $1.2 million worth of property a year.
One of the reasons Hawaii scored so low is because law enforcement receives 100 percent of the proceeds from the property that is seized.
New Mexico is on the other end of the spectrum. The state received the highest grade of A-minus due to recent reforms that effectively abolished civil forfeiture.
For a bigger-picture view on the report and asset forfeiture in general, check out The Washington Post鈥檚 .
The Post also published a on the practice in 2014.
