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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Ind. Law - "Bill would give schools 15% of forfeited funds"

Heather Giller of the Indianapolis Star reported Feb. 12th on the upshot of the Senate committee hearing on SB 215, concerning civil forfeitures. The story begins:

Schools would receive 15 percent of the assets police seize from criminals, and the rest would go to law enforcement agencies, under a proposed forfeiture law a Senate committee approved Friday.

The new version of the bill has support from both State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, making it the closest thing so far to a compromise on the controversial issue of how to divide forfeited funds.

State statute says any money that exceeds "law enforcement expenses" is supposed to be turned over to the Common School Fund. But an Indianapolis Star investigation last year found that the statute is so vague in defining "law enforcement expenses" that only five of Indiana's 92 counties turn over any money to schools.

A whistleblower lawsuit filed last year contends that prosecutors violated the statute by hoarding the money. The Common School Fund is a revolving loan fund that finances school construction and technology projects and the start-up of charter schools. * * *

In addition to setting a formula for dividing assets, the bill would add supervision by the state, judges and local elected officials to the forfeiture process. A recent disciplinary case against a Delaware County prosecutor who was paying himself with forfeiture money reminded state lawmakers and officials how vulnerable the current system is to abuse. * * *

It's hard to know how much 15 percent of forfeited funds would amount to, because no one knows how much police will seize from criminals in the coming year, and it varies widely from county to county. Last year, police seized $1.3 million in Marion County.

But the Common School Fund will clearly fare better than it has with the less than $50,000 per year it had been receiving. Last year's Marion County split alone would have brought the fund $195,000.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 13, 2011 10:46 AM
Posted to Indiana Law