WASHINGTON (AP) – Local police departments can once again seize people’s property and cash with federal help under a Justice Department policy unrolled Wednesday. A similar program was so criticized as ripe for abuse that the Obama administration all but shut it down.
Officials insist they’ve now equipped the policy, called adoptive forfeiture, with safeguards to keep authorities from taking cash and property without justification. Law enforcement groups praised the initiative, which has helped them pay for everything from drug dogs and bulletproof vests to overdose antidotes.
But civil liberties groups and some members of Congress called Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ policy a dangerous reversal that opens the door for constitutional rights violations.
___
ADOPTIVE FORFEITURE