Contra Costa Restricts Civil Asset Seizing In New Policy

CONTRA COSTA, CA — The Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton announced new restrictions on how the county will handle civil-asset forfeitures on Tuesday. The process previously allowed police officers to seize assets or money from those who had not yet been charged with a crime.

But Becton's office said it will no longer seize assets from those who were merely accused of committing a crime, ending a highly contentious and controversial practice.

"The community rightfully has tremendous concerns about the use of the civil asset forfeiture process by law enforcement," Becton said. "I have listened to the concerns and instituted this new policy on a permanent basis. We must only use civil asset forfeiture when absolutely necessary and in conjunction with a criminal case."

Becton's new policy introduced a new threshold for any forfeiture case: a mininum of $1,000 for the DA's office to consider using the process. Previously, the amount seized could be as low as $500.

The ACLU, along with many social justice advocates, have long decried civil asset forfeitures.

"Forfeiture was originally presented as a way to cripple large-scale criminal enterprises by diverting their resources," ACLU officials wrote it in a statement. "But today, aided by deeply flawed federal and state laws, many police departments use forfeiture to benefit their bottom lines, making seizures motivated by profit rather than crime-fighting."

In some cases assets can often be sold, with some of those proceeds going back to the law enforcement agency, an abusive practice, the ACLU has argued.

In 2019, 108 civil-asset forfeiture cases were persued in Contra Costa County, with over $2.5 million seized, according to a report published by California's justice department.

Of the 108 cases, 94 ended in forfeitures, with more than $1.9 million dispersed to agencies within Contra Costa County, including the Contra Costa Crime Lab, Pleasant Hill Police Department, the Martinez Police Department and several other agencies.

The change in policy also requires law enforcement agencies to serve a "Notice of Non-Judicial Forfeiture Proceedings and a Claim Opposing Forfeiture" on anyone who has an interest in the seized property.

Also under this new policy, this notice must be translated into multiple languages, including Spanish and Mandarin.

However, if the property at issue was abandoned or unclaimed, then the policy does not apply.