Bring Police-Seized Assets into the Light

Published on by Guest Author

By Daryl James

This op-ed was originally published by the Juneau Empire on December 16, 2020.

Police call the press and circulate photos when they find big stashes of contraband. Officers in Juneau and Nome welcomed the spotlight following recent drug busts.

Unfortunately, local agencies rarely talk about what happens to the cash and other seized assets after each photo op. Nor do they mention the routine traffic stops and petty seizures that more typically produce revenue in states that track the data. When auditors follow the money trail, what they find sometimes makes police and prosecutors look like party animals. … Read more on the Juneau Empire website.

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Daryl James is a writer at the nonprofit Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia. Photo by John Pennell, CC by 2.0.