The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "forfeiture laws" ...
-
Policing For Profit
NewsChannel 5's award-winning investigative team wrapped up a two-year investigation into practices that some call "policing for profit" with a primetime documentary that aired Friday, Dec. 21. The one-hour special included actual police "dashcam" videos of officers seizing cash from out-of-state drivers and extended interviews that have never been aired. The documentary examines civil forfeiture laws that allow Tennessee police to legally take cash from individuals based on suspicion that the money might be linked to drug trafficking. If an individual does not take legal action to recover the money, the police agency gets to keep it all – sometimes to pay the salaries of the officers seizing the cash. As our investigation showed, such "profit motives" create the potential for corruption.
Tags: Police officers; corruption; drug trafficking; civil forfeiture laws
-
Drug Under the Rug
A four-month investigation into the whereabouts of Athens County law enforcement agencies' seizures and forfeitures of items obtained during drug busts revealed that many, particularly the Sheriff, failed to report these items to the Attorney General's Office and could not account for the whereabouts of these items when questioned.
Tags: Drugs; drug busts; forfeitures
-
Dirty Money
Some law enforcement agencies have become addicted to seizing drug money. This story found:</p> <p>*Police agencies are seizing bulk cash from drivers and alleging it's drug money without finding any drugs, or, in many cases, without ever filing criminal money laundering charges.</p> <p>* Underfunded, usually rural police and prosecutor's offices have become dependent on seizing suspected drug money to carry out the basic functions of their offices, a state of affairs specifically discouraged by federal asset forfeiture laws.</P> <p>* In the extreme, some corrupt police forces are setting up "forfeiture traps," reminiscent of small-town speed traps, to catch suspected drug couriers and take their currency, a practice some attorneys call "highway robbery"</p> <p>* Some sheriff's departments have become more interested in confiscating cash than drugs, i.d. working southbound lanes into Mexico -- "our piggybank," one South Texas sheriff told me -- where they're more likely to catch money couriers. The reporters also found that these departments are not interested in investigating the couriers as a way to disrupt cartel activities -- all they're interested in is seizing the cash.</p> <p>* With little oversight built into state or federal asset forfeiture laws, some prosecutors' office are misspending their seized drug funds on things like margarita machines for the annual picnic and soccer uniforms for the police soccer team.</p> <p>* More and more law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of the "piggy banks" on their highways. According to the US Justice Department, in the past four years seized assets tripled from $567 million to $1.6 billion.</p>
Tags: Drug enforcement; seizure of money; US Justice Department; radio; forfeiture traps
-
Seizing for Dollars
The News-Sentinel examined the state's asset forfeiture program, specifically looking at what items were being taken from people by law enforcement in our country, why the property was taken and what happened to it. The reporters found authorities confiscated $1.1 million and nearly 1,700 vehicles over the past four years. Most of the vehicles were seized from repeat drunk drivers and those driving on a revoked license because of a prior DUI. The reporters looked at how much money the auctions of those vehicles brought into the departments and found that most agencies lost money after they deducted storage, towing and auction expenses from the proceeds.
Tags: forfeiture laws; Knoxville Police Department; vehicles; Tennessee Highway Patrol; police seizures; property; drug cases
-
Trench Warfare over fee forfeiture: How one law firm has hung on to seven-ninths of its copier (so far) -- and what it might mean for you.
The American Lawyer tells the story of the Mofeitt, Zwerling & Kemler, P.C. law firm, which managed to keep seven-ninths of a $103,800 fee the company charged a cocaine dealer it represented. The dealer was sent to federal prison, and prosecutors at first won a ruling that said the $103,800 fee was forfeitable, but the judge restricted prosecutors efforts to take the money out of the defense attorneys' hides.
Tags: defense lawyers; fee forfeiture; courts; prosecutors; law; legal; judges; ruling
-
Seize first, convict later
"Months or years before some suspected Scott County drug dealers get their day in criminal court, their seized property and cash already belong to law enforcement agencies. One in four Scott County residents who had property and money seized by local police never faced any criminal charges, a Quad-City Times investigation of court records shows."
Tags: defendants; police seizures; profits; drug; civil forfeiture laws; criminal convictions; criminal trials; "bounty-hunting" of assets; budget padding; tracking property; guns; vehicles; homes; boats
-
To Protect and Collect
The Star investigates how police circumvent forfeiture laws on a national scale. Seized money that should go through state courts and then to education often ends up going back to the police that seized it. Also looks at how in many cases federal agencies help local law enforcement keep most of the money they seize.
Tags: Seizure; forfeiture; federal agencies; law enforcement; drug money; Department of Justice
-
Series: Police keeping cash intended for education
The Kansas City Star reports " Police and federal agencies have diverted millions of dollars from Missouri schoolchildren. Under state law, money seized in drug cases is supposed to go to public school districts, but ... (often) when police discover a cache of drug money, they turn it over to a federal agency, which is not subject to state laws. The agency keeps a cut and returns the rest of the money to police."
Tags: Missouri police; money; funding; drug seizes forfeiture laws conflict of interest
-
OCU Drug Money
The Commercial Appeal "examined the use of seized drug funds by an undercover unit of the Memphis Police Department. Stories revealed that large sums of the cash were being used illegally to fund unauthorized travel. Officers were using credit cards, issued in the name of a covert company, to travel and make other purchases, with monthly credit card bills paid off with forfeited funds. Large amounts of cash were kept in a vault, but available to department personnel, to purchase gifts, meals, etc."
Tags: drug seizures forfeitures embezzlement law enforcement on the take bag money petty cash
-
Police keeping cash intended for education
Under Missouri state law, money seized in drug cases is supposed to go to public school districts. But some police and federal agencies have diverted millions of dollars from Missouri schoolchildren. When police discover a cache of drug money, they turn it over to a federal agency, which is not subject to state laws. The agency keeps a cut and returns the rest of the money to police. Police say that the windfall is used to fight the war on drugs. But such transfers to federal agencies hurt taxpayers, who must pay more for schools.
Tags: Forfeiture; Schools; Drugs