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Civil Asset Forfeiture—Important Drug-Fighting Tool or Policing for Profit?

February 18, 2019 | St. Louis Public Radio
By
Lara Hamdan
Rachel Lippmann (left) and William Freivogel discussed the way in which police departments use civil asset forfeiture as well as its legal implications on "St. Louis on the Air." Image by Evie Hemphill. USA, 2018.

Rachel Lippmann (left) and William Freivogel discussed the way in which police departments use civil asset forfeiture as well as its legal implications on "St. Louis on the Air." Image by Evie Hemphill. United States, 2019.

On Monday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh delved into the way in which police departments use civil asset forfeiture as well as its legal implications.

Joining the discussion were St. Louis Public Radio city politics reporter Rachel Lippmann and legal expert William Freivogel, who is a professor at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale.

Freivogel reported on the practice, explained how it worked and found that "in the past two decades, the federal government took in $36.5 billion in assets police seized from people on America’s roads and in its poorer neighborhoods."

Listen to the full discussion: