About Us Americans for Forfeiture Reform is a non-profit research organization that works to catalogue and describe the extent of forfeiture practices in the United States. We have identified several substantial problems with the ways that these laws, particularly civil forfeiture laws, are deployed on the state and federal level. The essence of any non-criminal forfeiture proceeding (this covers civil forfeitures, as well as agency administrative forfeiture powers) is that property may be taken from citizens without the due process of a trial or a conviction. In this setup, citizens are faced with the prospect of losing their property based on often nebulous claims that their property is implicated in a crime or will be used to commit a crime. Seizures can be performed on suspicion of criminality, and citizens face substantial obstacles to defending their property in civil proceedings where the government can present suspicion or paid informant testimony as evidence. Citizens do not have to have an attorney appointed for them if they are indigent, and citizens who have the resources to defend themselves are often deterred from contesting these claims by the high cost of representation and the low probability of success. Many forfeiture proceedings are brought against people who can be defined as low-income, minority, or politically weak. In Texas, police in the town of Tehana began taking money from black Americans driving through the town by presenting them the option of voluntarily giving up their money to the police or facing felony money laundering charges. In Missouri, black and Hispanic motorists are victimized by both Missouri’s Highway Patrol as well as the conglomerate police forces in St. Louis and Kansas City. Many of these incidents are unrecorded in part, particularly when cash or highly portable valuable property is seized. In Indiana, prosecutors bully low-income and minority citizens into signing confidential settlement agreements to give the police part of their property instead of facing civil forfeiture proceedings for all of it. In many states, forfeiture money is legislatively or constitutionally appropriated to general revenue funds. In Missouri, that fund is an education fund; for 20 years, local and federal law enforcement have worked together to keep these funds for their budgets rather than comply with Missouri’s constitutional mandate. This is typical around the nation and allows law enforcement to set policy at will, rather than facing the needlessly intrusive process of seeking legislative appropriations and dealing with civilian oversight. These funds often go to pay for advanced military weaponry and technology, changing the very nature of domestic law enforcement and setting law enforcement priorities very specifically to generate revenue rather than prosecuting criminals. Our work and funding needs We are looking for organizations to sponsor our work around the nation to catalogue and describe the extent of civil forfeiture abuses. We are interested in: Using open records laws to obtain records of forfeitures from state and local police departments that receive large amounts of forfeiture money. We have already started this process in Missouri, Texas, and Indiana. Using open records laws to track forfeiture money and deposits into state general revenue funds. We are concerned particularly that even when forfeiture money is correctly disbursed to these funds that there are substantial cases of fraud and abuse of these funds due to the lack of oversight and accountability. Describing the extent of forfeitures targeted against minority and low-income populations. Submitting FOIA requests to the Department of Justice, Treasury, and the Department of Commerce, to catalogue and describe the extent of federal forfeiture actions, particularly with regard to federal circumvention of state appropriations mandates for forfeiture funds. Our current policy work includes: Law review articles in progress on both state and federal forfeiture provisions. Policy research for publication in refereed academic publications (like Criminology & Public Policy. Currently most journal publications outside law reviews is sponsored by the Department of Justice and is written by the same people who write their forfeiture protocol manuals) Our advocacy work includes: Coalition-building with the intent of creating a viable legislative effort on the federal level to repeal or reform forfeiture provisions. The production of amicus briefs for lawsuits filed in various states challenging the abuses and legality of forfeiture provisions. What we need: Grants to sponsor the work of filing open access requests to state and local law enforcement and budgetary agencies around the nation. Grants to sponsor the production of work for publication in academic outlets (law reviews, academic journals) as well as amicus briefs in legal challenges. Grants to sponsor the work of coalition building to reform federal policy. Grant making organizations are encouraged to contact us at Americans for Forfeiture Reform, 3630 Holmes St., Kansas City, Missouri, 64109 Or by email at [email protected]