By Pat Doyle The allegations involving the Metro Gang Strike Force have shined light on a little secret: Many police agencies fail to report their seizures of property to the State Auditor as required by law. The legislature, well aware that its seizure and forfeiture law could be abused by rogue police, required such reporting to lend transparency to a process that often occurs outside a courtroom. But the Metro Gang Strike Force, accused of improperly using the law to seize money, cars and other property, never reported its activities to the Auditor in 2008. It turns out the Gang Strike Force wasn't alone. In response to a request by the Star Tribune, the Auditor's Office this week released a list of 95 police agencies that failed to report last year. http://www.startribune.com/local/67749722.html

But that list wasn't included in the Auditor's earlier annual report, raising questions about whether the office reveals enough information to assure accountability by the police. "I've had some very serious concerns about the fact that the Metro Gang Strike Force did not report to the Auditor's Office as required," Sen. Julienne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, told Auditor Rebecca Otto at a legislative hearing. "And also… concerns about the fact that you didn't receive information from them and didn't catch that red warning flag." That prompted an exchange between Ortman and Otto about the role of her office. Otto said her agency reports the information it gets from police agencies, and doesn't have the power under state statute to penalize agencies that don't comply. She added that her office sends out reminder letters to the agencies who don't provide information. "That's about all we can do," she said. But the statute doesn't bar the Auditor from using its annual report to expose specific police agencies that failed to obey the law. Ortman urged the auditor to "not just be a clearing house, but to go back and say, 'who should be reporting , who's not reporting,' and analyze it enough to let the Department of Public Safety know or…the Attorney General know, that you are not getting reports." Otto told legislators that her office could add a list of non-complying police agencies to its future annual reports. "That would be easy," she said.