Controversial law has a state senator calling to halt program.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Ever since Civil Asset Forfeiture, popularly known as “civil seizure†was introduced, it has been a subject of controversy.
Under this law, police can seize the property and assets of people they suspect without proving their involvement in a crime. Police can do this without a warrant and without arresting the suspected person.
Giving a digital outlook to the controversial law, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has come up with a new device that allows them to seize the money in bank account and prepaid cards of the suspect.
The new device based on a technology called Electronic Recovery and Access to Data Machine (ERADM) was first used by 16 Oklahoma troopers last month.
According to RT.com, when the troopers suspect a person of committing wrongdoing through prepaid, debit, credit or virtually any card with a magnetic strip, they can swipe it through their new machine to generate information on the account. Police can either freeze the account or transfer funds from it.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent was quoted by News9.com saying: “We’re gonna look for different factors in the way that you’re acting. We’re gonna look for if there’s a difference in your story. If there’s someway that we can prove that you’re falsifying information to us about your business.”
“I know that a lot of people are just going to focus on the seizing money. That’s a very small thing that’ s happening now. The largest part that we have found … the biggest benefit has been the identity theft,” Vincent said.
“If you can prove can prove that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we’ve done that in the past,” Vincent said added.
In contrary to this, State Sen. Kyle Loveless (R-Oklahoma City), said that a suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He said we’ve already seen cases in Oklahoma where police are abusing the system.
“We’ve seen single mom’s stuff be taken, a cancer survivor his drugs taken, we saw a Christian band being taken. We’ve seen innocent people’s stuff being taken. We’ve seen where the money goes and how it’s been misspent,” Loveless said.
Loveless also plans to introduce legislation next session which would require a conviction before any assets can be seized.
1 Comment
That is literally felony armed robbery, to which citizens should be able to use the immediate force necessary to stop the crime. Cohorts in crime are guilty of felony conspiracy.
There is something called due process.