Issue

Civil Asset Forfeiture

Every day, law enforcement agents strip Americans of billions of dollars in cash, cars, real estate, and other assets through civil asset forfeiture policies. These seizures happen during routine traffic stops and checkpoints, raids on homes and businesses, and other police operations. State and federal law enforcement agencies are permitted to seize property, often without due process, and in many states the laws allow them to keep the property, or more typically, the revenue from its sale.

Taken: Civil Asset Forfeiture is a collaborative, investigative reporting effort supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, that mobilizes regional investigative newsrooms in America’s heartland to scrutinize property seizures by law enforcement and also offers a deep dive into the complex state and federal data that reveals the seizure of private property without due process.

 

 

Civil Asset Forfeiture

How Missouri's Drug Task Forces Avoid Accountability

Court records show that Missouri’s federally funded drug task forces have often failed to set up required oversight commissions, failed to hold oversight meetings in public and repeatedly failed to respond to Sunshine Act requests for public information. 

Civil Asset Forfeiture in St. Louis

Liberal and conservative justices criticize abuses of civil asset forfeiture. Groups from CATO to the ACLU do too. Republicans and Democrats want change, but much of the reform agenda is unfinished.

Asset Forfeiture in Texas

In each of Texas' 254 counties, a host of local agencies can use civil asset forfeiture to help cover their expenses. But the system's lack of transparency and accountability makes it ripe for abuse.

For-Profit Policing in Kentucky

Kentucky has some of the weakest laws in the country when it comes to protecting property from seizure. The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting examines why law enforcement is seizing so much property—and who's suffering.

Timbs v. Indiana, Explained

Timbs v. Indiana was a case involving civil asset forfeiture decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. It is a significant step toward judicial reform of civil asset forfeiture practices.