Confiscation of property is a big business for police departments across the country. Data from the Institute of Justice says that in 2018 alone, police in 42 states and Washington DC collected more than $3 billion from citizens; half a billion was made under various state laws while $2.5 billion was made under federal law. At the state and local levels, forfeiture is a bargain for many municipal police departments around the country – often to the detriment of citizens who have not committed crimes. The New York Times reported that the Memphis Police Department was in the business of impounding the vehicles of many city residents, often for no legal reason at all.
Vehicle seizures have exploded over the past few years in the city. It all starts in 2021. Believed to prevent reckless driving and illegal street racing, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis has outlined a plan to crack down by confiscating people’s vehicles. people. The result of this action was the creation of a program called “Operation Against Street Crime to Restore Peace to Our Neighborhoods”, called the Scorpion Unit. (This is the unit that killed Nichols Tire.) Davis says police will no longer charge people with reckless behavior — they simply confiscate people’s cars.
From the New York Times:
“Once we identify individuals who drive recklessly to the point of endangering the lives of others, we also want to impound your vehicle.” she speaks. “Get the car. Even if the case is dropped in court. We’ve seen it. You’ve done it. You may find it inconvenient for three days without a car. That’s enough. “
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland supports the measure and wants to go further by not only seizing the vehicles, but also destroying them. “I don’t care if they go to jail for a day. Let me take their cars, and then once a month we’ll put them all together, maybe at the old fairgrounds, Liberty Park, and just smash them,” he said. quoted saying in 2022.
The unit and the arrests were considered successful with more than 270 vehicles made in the first few months of operation. But the confiscated cars were done at a cost.
Even if a crime has been committed, the legal rationale behind the vehicle seizure is ambiguous and questionable. The defense attorney argued that talk to time It has been shown, for example, that cars seized for drug offenses are generally not associated with any kind of drug crime — leaving vehicle owners struggling to navigate a court process. complicated case to get their own property back.
Most other vehicles were also taken away for bogus reasons. That’s what happened to Shawn Douglas Jr. After being stopped and searched at a gas station, police said they found two bags of marijuana in Douglas’ backpack, an allegation Douglas denies. In the end, the police confiscated his 2015 Dodge Charger. Before taking it, Douglas said to time that one officer commented that his car “would be a great police vehicle. When we take those cars, we hope people don’t come back for them so we can carry out the drug dealings.” Months later, all charges against Douglas were dropped, but the city kept his car, costing him $925 to get it back.
Worse still, others trying to get their vehicles back are met with a legal system that is almost deliberately set up against them. And the city remains tight-lipped about the exact number of vehicles needed and how much money the city collects from these arrests. Until something can be done about how the city is campaigning against other reckless vehicle-related crime, the largely innocent will continue to pay the price. Go New York Times for the whole story.
