institute for justice

Florida's Civil Asset Forfeiture Reforms Haven't Stopped the Shakedowns Despite civil asset forfeiture reforms in Florida, police are still finding ways to take people's stuff. 12 December 2021 On a May day in 2015, a task force of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and Miami-Dade...

Dallas Police Took $106,000 From a Traveler. They Haven't Explained Why. A police dog's alert prompted the search, and the money was seized via civil asset forfeiture. 8 December 2021 On Sunday, a Facebook post from the Dallas Police Department went viral. It depicts a police dog, Ballentine...

Ohio Prosecuted a Taxidermist for Asking an Inspector to Come Back Later Regulators insist Fourth Amendment protections don’t apply to administrative searches. 8 December 2021 When law enforcement officers tell you they're certain that everybody is a lawbreaker, they inadvertently summarize a...

She Got Her Car Back 6 Years 2After Police Seized It Malinda Harris’ ordeal shows how easily the government can take innocent people’s property under civil forfeiture laws. 8 December 2021 After police in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, took her car, Malinda Harris did not get a chance to...

SWAT Team Blows Up Innocent Woman’s Home, Tell Her that She Has to Pay the $50,000 Bill 5 December 2021 In July of last year, Vicki Baker, 75, was excited to move on to the next chapter of her life in Montana by selling her home she owned for 12 years in McKinney, Texas. That sale would never...

Watch Nevada Highway Patrol Officers Seize a Veteran's Life Savings Through Asset Forfeiture The officers admit there's nothing illegal about carrying large amounts of cash, then take almost $90,000 from him anyway. 1 December 2021 "I just want to tell you Officer Brown, you're taking money...

After the DEA Stole $70,000 From This Filmmaker, He Got His Money Back, Plus a $15,000 Settlement Keddins Etienne's experience shows that bullies who seize innocent people's property tend to back down when their victims put up a fight. 5 November 2021 Before a federal drug agent stole nearly...

The report "Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair: Civil Forfeiture in the Words of its Victims" is given in the responses that follow. Institute For Justice Survey Shows How Philadelphia's Forfeiture Program Preyed On Poor Minorities 8 November 2021 The Institute for Justice managed to kill off...

Wilmington Residents File Lawsuit Challenging City’s Unconstitutional Impound Racket 22 September 2021 Wilmington contracts out its municipal impound system to private towing companies and funds the whole system by letting these companies wrongfully take and keep people’s cars. The city pays...

Cops Arrested Her for Exercising Her First Amendment Rights. They Got Qualified Immunity—but the Appeals Court Wasn't Having It 3 November 2021 Whether you can exercise your First Amendment rights freely depends, in some cases, on where you live and what judges happen to hear your plea...

In Only 6 Years, 30,000 Philly Residents Were Robbed by Cops. Most of Them Innocent, Poor, Black "We stole this from innocent people." 30 October 2021 For six straight years, law enforcement in Philadelphia acted as a corrupt ring of thieving thugs, shaking down more than 30,000 residents...

The Supreme Court Declines To Determine if You Have a First Amendment Right To Film the Police 1 November 2021 The Supreme Court has just refused to hear a case at the nexus of police abuse and the First Amendment, declining to consider a petition from a man who says his free speech rights...

Police Turn on Hidden Cameras, Turn Off Fourth Amendment 1 Novembber 2021 If neighbors surrounded your home with spy cameras and monitored all your comings and goings for 18 months, you might call it stalking or something worse. Yet that’s what the police did to Travis Tuggle without a...

Lawsuit Challenging Houston Asset Forfeiture Program Says Police Use Stock Language To Seize Cash Without Probable Cause A couple claims the Harris County Sheriff's Office in Texas seized their life savings two years ago on suspicion of drug trafficking. A new lawsuit says they're not the only...

In a New Survey, Victims of Philadelphia's Forfeiture Racket Highlight the Hazards of Giving Cops a License To Steal 20 October 2021 After "they came in," Robert recalled, "they made me go down to the basement," "put a gun to the back of my head," and "said 'open the safe.'" When Robert did...

Dozens of states have tried to end qualified immunity. Police officers and unions helped beat nearly every bill. 7 October 2021 In the months after George Floyd’s murder, state legislators across the country tried to undo a legal doctrine that makes it virtually impossible to sue police...

If the Police Lie, Should They Be Held Liable? Often the Answer Is No. 12 September 2021 In 2010, Officer Heather Weyker of the St. Paul Police Department in Minnesota had the biggest case of her career: a child sex-trafficking ring said to have spanned four states and involved girls as young...

Qualified immunity denied! A Prison Guard Who Pepper-Sprayed an Inmate Without Provocation Got Qualified Immunity. SCOTUS Disagreed. 23 February 2021 The Supreme Court on Monday dealt another blow to qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields civil servants from accountability for...

Georgia Tax Crimes Unit Illegally Spent Asset Forfeiture Funds on Trinkets and Swag 29 September 2021 A state watchdog concluded an office in the Georgia Department of Tax Revenue illegally kept $5 million in forfeiture funds and spent it partially on swag like sunglasses and engraved guns...

The DHS Agent Who Tried To Kill Kevin Byrd Can't Be Sued—Because He Works for the Federal Government 22 September 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent Ray Lamb was not acting in his professional capacity when he approached Kevin Byrd in the parking lot of a Texas bar and allegedly...