News Roundup

• Police in St. Louis are moving in to a new headquarters in the coming weeks. The new building was purchased in 2011 with $2.7 in forfeiture money. “Asset forfeiture money means money we seized from criminal enterprises. So in this case, crime really did pay for the metropolitan police department” said Police Chief Sam Dotson. Though state law directs asset forfeiture money to a fund for schools, that hasn't stopped law enforcement agencies in Missouri from receiving more than $135 million in equitable sharing payments since 2000, more than $14 million of which went to St. Louis Metro PD.
• Mendocino County's District Attorney's office is donating $10,000 in asset forfeiture revenue to a local anti-gang program for schools.
• Newsday chronicles the use of asset forfeiture on Long Island. The article includes some interesting details regarding how forfeiture money was spent in 2013, including $1.3 million for vehicles, $136,000 in out-of-town trips, and $385,000 in weapons and gear.
• A reporter for the Witness out of South Africa details the troubles of the National Prosecutor's Office and its' asset forfeiture unit. An unnamed AFU official blamed the unit's ineffectiveness on the "protracted legal process" that follows a seizure, while others point to infighting within the unit as a source of inefficiency.
• Webpronews discusses the moral quandary of purchasing property seized by police. They close by suggesting "...maybe the Ferrari that you see in that late night ad was once owned by a drug kingpin who now wears an orange outfit and a number. But maybe your local police force pays its salaries with the folding money of innocent out of state travelers."
• MyRecordJournal.com has a piece on how law enforcement in Connecticut use asset forfeiture funds to pay travel expenses. Jonathan Einhorn, a former New Haven police commissioner, is criticizes using forfeiture for travel and says “...[S]tate police have created a slush fund for vacations and travel, and that is just not the purpose.”