The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has purchased several devices capable of seizing funds loaded on to prepaid debit cards to aid troopers in roadside seizures of suspected drug-trafficking proceeds.
The portable card scanners are designed to be carried in law enforcement vehicles, allow troopers to freeze and seize money loaded onto a prepaid debit card, and to return money to an account whose funds were seized or frozen.
The card readers could reignite debate over civil asset forfeiture in Oklahoma and across the nation. State and federal laws allow law enforcement agencies to seize property and cash believed to be involved in the illicit drug trade and then take ownership of the assets through a civil-court action.
T. Jack Williams, ERAD Group president and one of the leading magnetic stripe card consultants for federal and state law enforcement, said the device has three main purposes: intelligence, forensics and asset seizure.
“The seizure stuff is really secondary, even tertiary,” Williams said.
DYI Quick Comment: What total bullshit on the part Jack Williams these seizure laws are now big business for police departments across the nation.
Williams declined to say exactly how many law enforcement agencies across the country now ERAD Devices.
“I can tell you it’s in the hundreds,” Williams said.
Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, said he, too, was concerned with the constitutional and due process implications of the ERAD devices.
“Until this, we didn’t even know these things were in existence,” Loveless said. “It’s scary to know that technology even exists and that government agencies are using it without an arrest without a warrant.”
4th Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
However, Vincent, of DPS, said the devices are not only for seizure of suspected illicit funds. Although no seizures have yet been made with the devices, troopers have been able to use the card readers to uncover cases of identity theft, he said.
“The asset forfeiture part will definitely help us as far as we have people trying to courier large amounts of money, but it also, and is probably is seen more as, helping with identity theft, credit card fraud and all of that,” Vincent said. “This isn’t solely about asset forfeiture. This isn’t about money. We’re not in the business of making money. We’re in the business of solving crimes.”
New findings show asset forfeiture a growing attack on property rights.
Created in the early days of the nation's war on drugs, asset forfeiture was designed to grab the proceeds from drug kingpins. But most of the money now is grabbed from ordinary citizens. According to a study last year,
about 80 percent of the time, seized property is taken from people who have never been charged with anything.
That same study, by the Drug Policy Alliance, found wanton abuses in California cities. Police are not supposed to budget forfeiture proceeds, but they increasingly depend on the revenues to fund their operations.
DYI Comments: When you don't know what is going on "follow the money!" 80% NEVER charge with a crime? This is nothing more than organized crime(police) involved shaking down citizens. This has to be stopped before our police departments become institutionalized criminal organizations.
Don't get me wrong most of the time I'm a big supporter of our police but these seizure laws are totally out of control.
DYI
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