Iowa House committee gets earful on civil forfeiture law

DES MOINES - There were few areas of consensus during a two-hour presentation by law enforcement and civil libertarians on Iowa's civil asset forfeiture law.

However, based on those areas of agreement, House Government Oversight Chairman Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, plans to offer legislation next year restricting the use of seizures of personal property and money in criminal cases, including those where charges are dropped or a defendant is found not guilty.

'I think we heard some overlapping options from both the people who were concerned about civil asset forfeiture and law enforcement,” Kaufmann said. The committee heard from seven representatives of Iowa law enforcement and county prosecutors who vigorously defended the law as well as civil liberty advocates who questioned the use of civil asset forfeiture.

He foresees offering legislation in 2016 that would limit what the confiscated assets could be spent on 'to prevent any potential abuses.”

Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, believes 'the vast major of law enforcement is doing everything right and have no vested interest in making money for their own organization, but it absolutely has the appearance of impropriety … and people start thinking the worst.”

Kaufmann also would require that all forfeitures be handled through a judicial procedure rather than an administrative process where the agency confiscating the assets determines whether the seizure is appropriate.

He also wants a system to track all seizures - what is seized, what happens to it and how the proceeds are spent.

Wolfe agreed that would increase transparency and do away with accusations of what critics of civil forfeiture call 'policing for profit.”

Wolfe and Kaufmann also agreed that defendants who successfully challenge seizures should be awarded attorney fees. Wolfe said many people don't challenge seizures because attorney fees will be more than the value of their assets.

'I think we would have bipartisan support for a bill like that,” Kaufmann said, 'and I think we could do that without waging an attack on law enforcement while respecting those who think changes need to be made.”