Pursuing and apprehending drug dealers in our community brings a variety of social benefits.
The advantages include decreased crime rates, increased home values due to safer neighborhoods and at least a temporary reduction in the local drug supply.
There are also financial benefits. This year, the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office stepped up its use of the asset forfeiture program, which confiscates proceeds — usually money and property — from drug busts.
So far, about $50,000 has been brought in — an average of about $1,000 a week, according to Prosecutor Pat Harrington.
State law allows such seized assets to help pay for law enforcement training and equipment. On the surface, it sounds like a suitable way to pay for much-needed extras for law enforcement agencies.
And why shouldn't the authorities — and the community at large — benefit from the ill-gotten gains of drug dealers?
Why not, indeed?
Well, there's a problem with the state's asset forfeiture law.
Chiefly, there's no requirement that a conviction be obtained before authorities seize someone's property and money.
That undermines a basic foundation of American law: the concept that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
In the past, some jurisdictions across the country, have used asset forfeiture as a weapon against the accused.
Give up your assets, some prosecutors have hinted, and we'll drop the charges we've filed against you.
The Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office says that in 99 percent of its forfeiture cases, "companion" criminal cases have been filed.
That's reassuring.
This year, seizures helped pay for the purchase of a new canine deputy for the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department at a cost of $10,900. The money also paid for 13 Taser guns for the Lafayette Police Department ($14,000) and GPS tracking devices for vehicles owned by the state police and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (about $6,300).
The federal Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act makes it more difficult to seize property without evidence of wrongdoing.
Currently, Tippecanoe County is pursuing rights to a $28,000 seizure through federal courts. If successful, the county stands to gain about $22,000, while the federal government gets the rest.
No question, crime costs communities.
No question, local law enforcement agencies spend millions to fight it — much of it on drug interdiction and the consequences drugs levy on communities. Cleaning up just one meth lab drains about $5,000, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute says. On average, drug users cost taxpayers about $22,000 before receiving treatment, according to the Commission for a Drug-Free Indiana.
No question, it is gratifying that some of that is coming back to help offset those costs.
However, asset forfeiture cases must be carefully and ethically pursued.
They must be paired with cases where prosecutors have a reasonable expectation of criminal conviction.
Above all, they must not be filed at a cost to individual rights.
