A state watchdog agency criticized the taking of small cash amounts and low-value property from suspected criminals, saying the practice harms poorer households in Minnesota.
A majority of assets seized by Minnesota police are worth less than $1,500, according to a report out this week by the Minnesota Office of the State Auditor. They contribute little to public safety department budgets as a result but come at sometimes great expense to their original owners.
“In somebody’s life, $100, $1,500 could make a big difference,” State Auditor Julie Blaha said.
The new report focuses on a law enforcement practice known as civil asset forfeiture that allows the police to seize property, including cash, that they suspect is being used or was obtained in a criminal manner. Individuals can be made to “forfeit” their property — which the police can then keep and even sell — without being arrested.
The practice has been legal in Minnesota since 1971 and was intended to help break apart criminal enterprises. Criminal justice reform advocates have criticized it in recent years for what they say is a potential for abuse, and for the legal costs and other hurdles associated with getting one’s property back.
Findings from the report, Blaha said, could support recent legislation aimed at banning the forfeiture of small-dollar items. In Minnesota, forfeitures brought in net of approximately $7.5 million in 2019, according to the auditor’s report.
Approximately $1.5 million of that came from forfeitures of $1,500 or less, the loss of which Blaha said Minnesota could afford should it ban small-dollar forfeitures.
“That has a much bigger effect on an individual,” she said, noting the average for forfeitures is $500. “That may be the difference this month between making rent and slipping into homelessness.”
The most common offenses that resulted in civil asset forfeiture in Minnesota last year were for driving under the influence or were related to illegal drugs.
A total of 317 law enforcement agencies in Minnesota completed approximately 7,700 forfeitures last year, down from the roughly 8,000 completed in 2018.
Vehicles accounted for 65 percent of property seized in 2019, according to the report. Cash made up approximately 25 percent of last year’s seizures, with firearms and other property making up an additional 9 percent and 1 percent, respectively.