Forfeiture-law fix may free federal funds

Lawmakers are working on a fix of a state forfeiture law that would allow Utah cops to get back some $4 million-plus in federal money unavailable to them since the passage of Initiative B in 2000.

The fix comes in an amendment to SB175 by Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George. It would release federal funds not returned to the state from July 2001, the effective date of the initiative, through Feb. 25, 2004.

"No one can say that money is an incentive because it's been sitting around," Urquhart said Thursday as the amendment was being crafted. He intended to move the amendment Friday night, but other House business prevented the bill from coming up for debate.

What the amendment won't do, he adds, is allow law enforcement to again partake of federal forfeiture revenue sharing. That part of the issue will be sent to the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee for study.

"We'll fight that battle next year, " he said. "I have a year to convince Utahns that law enforcement ought to get that money."

Bill sponsor, Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, thinks Urquhart's amendment is a good compromise.

"It allows all the language in SB175 to remain, including the language that allows us to get the federal money," said Buttars. "It also strikes all the language in there regarding federal forfeitures and sends it to interim study.

"I'll make sure that hummer gets heard on both sides, from one end to the other, 14 different ways."

He and Urquhart will spend the next year trying to find the means to do what SB175 originally sought to do: let local police participate in joint investigations with federal agencies and keep forfeiture proceeds.

Used commonly in drug and fraud cases, forfeiture is a civil court process through which property obtained through criminal activity is relinquished for sale by police agencies, which then use the funds to help fight crime.

Opponents of the process say it creates unhealthy incentives for police and makes innocent people vulnerable to illegal forfeitures by police. In particular, they are opposed to federal seizure because they say federal law does not provide adequate due process.

On that platform, Initiative B passed with 69 percent of the vote in 2000. It beefed up protections for property owners and made it illegal for police to keep any forfeiture funds. Such monies have since gone into the Uniform School Fund, while federal dollars sat unused and waiting for Utah to change its law. Utah stands to lose the federal money to other states if the law isn't changed this year, deputy attorney general Kirk Torgensen has said.