Cash from criminal forfeitures drops

Star Tribune

Last update: August 6, 2009 - 7:46 PM

Print this story

Follow local news on Twitter

More from Local + Metro

The state's law enforcement agencies last year confiscated fewer items from convicted criminals and netted less cash from those forfeitures, the Minnesota state auditor's office reported Thursday.

ANNUAL REPORT: The office's annual report on cash and property seized found that 225 agencies realized just over $3.8 million in 2008, down 21 percent from a year earlier.

After expenses were deducted, the agencies realized net income of $3.5 million.

The number of seizures also dropped by 22 percent from 2007 to 2008, to 3,823.

The biggest reason for last year's decline in forfeitures stems from Minneapolis police, which nonetheless had the largest number -- 406 -- of any agency. The department did not complete any firearm forfeitures in 2008 because the business that Minneapolis had used to destroy firearms stopped providing the service last year, the office reported. Until the firearms are destroyed, final disposition cannot be reported, it wrote.

Other agencies reported that their declines largely resulted from a backlog in processing forfeitures -- not an actual drop in property seizures.

STATE LAW: Under state law dating to the 1970s, property and cash can be seized in criminal cases involving controlled substances, with the proceeds used by law enforcement agencies. More recently, that law has been broadened to include other crimes, such as homicide and robbery, although the bulk of seizure cases still involve controlled substances.

BOB VON STERNBERG