PHOENIX – The Goldwater Institute has been tackling the issue of “policing for profit” for several years. Last week, the director of the Institute reminded Arizona’s leaders that there is still time to make the necessary reforms.
In his piece, Arizona still has a chance to rein in “policing for profit,” Victor Riches argues that now is the time for reform. “In our country’s current hyper-politicized climate, few issues unite and galvanize Americans. However, in the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, nearly everyone agrees that reforms must be implemented to reel in the powers of law enforcement and ensure all Americans are treated fairly. This is particularly important to minority communities, who feel their voices are too often ignored by those in power.”
Riches points to the Legislature’s refusal to pass Sen. Eddie Farnsworth’s civil asset forfeiture bill. Riches calls the bill, SB 1556, a key police reform measure. SB 1556 was killed in the House in the final minutes of the 2020 Legislative Session with pressure from law enforcement agencies including the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
In the State House, every Democrat inexplicably voted against the bill. A handful of Republicans opposed it as well, led by opposition from the state’s Attorney General, who has been using civil asset forfeiture as a way of funding his office. These efforts ended the only chance at criminal justice reform at the Capitol during the regular session.
In acts of incredible hypocrisy, both the Attorney General and the House Democrats are now calling for police reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s senseless killing. Yet when they had the opportunity to enact real changes to a broken system, the legislators put petty politics ahead of their constituents, and the Attorney General put his office’s bottom line ahead of the sincere concerns of Arizonans.
Riches notes that Farnsworth’s bill “would have restrained the unconscionable power of law enforcement to police for profit. Under Arizona’s civil asset forfeiture laws, police and other law enforcement entities have the authority to seize private property from citizens— their cars, their cash, their homes — without the property owner ever being convicted of a crime.”
“Since property is taken through a civil procedure instead of a criminal case, the burden is much simpler for the government to meet in order to relieve citizens of their property,” explained Riches. “Coupled with the fact that in most forfeiture cases the property owner is unable to afford an attorney, the inevitable result is a system rife with abuse, which is precisely what is happening in Arizona.”
SB 1556 would have merely required that a person be convicted of a crime before the government could seize their assets.