For too long, our civil asset forfeiture laws have flipped the presumption of innocence on its head – forcing people to prove their innocence to the government to keep their own property.
We need a fair process to protect innocent Arkansans and address the current barriers to justice—high costs relative to low seizure amount.
Here are the civil asset forfeiture figures since 2010:
- 43% of seizures are less than $500;
- On top of that 19% are between $501 and $1,000;
- That means 62% of seizures are less than $1,000;
- On top of that 25% of seizures are less than $5,000;
- That means that nearly 90% of seizures are below $5,000.
These low dollar-amounts do not represent the fruit of cartels.
In fact, only 5 individual seizures since 2010 exceeded $1 million out of the thousands done of seizures completed over the last decade.
But recently introduced legislation, Senate Bill 197, will bring greater justice to a system that is causing big problems for innocent Arkansans.
Urge your lawmakers to support SB 197!