NASHVILLE – Tennessee law enforcement’s power to seize cash, vehicles and other property from suspects never actually charged with a crime would face new restrictions under legislation moving in the General Assembly.
House Civil Justice Subcommittee members last week approved the measure, sponsored by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah. The bill is named after former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, who helped Carter and Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, the Senate sponsor, shape the bill.
The bill is scheduled to be heard this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Carter said Meese, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, hopes it becomes model legislation that other states can look to when it comes to the nationally controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture.
Critics on the left and right charge civil asset seizure practices are effectively resulting in “policing for profit,” a description rejected by law enforcement officials who say the money is necessary to fuel operations and combat crime.
While the bill sponsored by Carter, a former Hamilton County General Sessions Court judge, doesn’t do away with the practice, he told subcommittee members last week the bill makes a “fairly radical change” in cases where no criminal charges are actually filed.