Methodology

Data Collection

To identify forfeiture reporting practices currently in use across the country, we used legal research and public records requests to collect the following six categories of documents for each state and the federal government wherever possible:

Forfeiture reporting statutes,

Regulations issued by oversight bodies, such as the state police or an attorney general,

Statewide or other aggregate forfeiture reports,

Local law enforcement agency seizure and forfeiture reports,

Forfeiture reporting forms, and

Guidelines describing how forfeiture information must be tracked and reported.

We began by collecting each state’s forfeiture reporting statutes in order to analyze what kinds of seizure and spending information must be tracked, reported and made publicly available, as well as how states encourage compliance with reporting requirements and promote financial integrity in their forfeiture programs. Because the statutes often grant authority to oversight bodies to develop regulations that augment the statutory reporting requirements, we also gathered these regulations. In addition, we collected all available statewide and federal department-wide forfeiture reports. These often provide information beyond what is required by law, but they do not always reveal all of the key details that agencies track and provide to oversight bodies. To capture such details, we also examined the local reports that law enforcement agencies must submit to oversight bodies, the reporting forms that agencies fill out in order to create those reports, and the guidelines issued by the oversight body that provide agencies with directions for completing the forms. If any other relevant documents turned up during our research, such as additional property inventories maintained by law enforcement agencies, we examined them for additional reporting details.

States are given the benefit of the doubt wherever possible. For instance, if a state does not require something but agencies in the state do it anyway, credit is awarded. By the same token, credit is not withheld from states where agencies are out of compliance with reporting requirements or not yet fully in compliance with new reporting requirements, provided the requirements themselves meet the standard.

Grading Scales

Tracking Seized Property

On this element of forfeiture transparency and accountability, more detailed record-keeping earns higher grades. During data collection, we identified 20 key details about seized property that are tracked internally by at least one state or federal entity. We counted how many of these key details law enforcement agencies must record about property they seize. Grades are then assigned using the following scale:

Grade Number of Details A+ 20 A 18–19 A- 17 B+ 16 B 14–15 B- 13 C+ 12 C 8–11 C- 7 D+ 6 D 4–5 D- 3 F 0–2

This grade reflects only what agencies must track internally—not necessarily what they must report publicly or to a city council or legislature. A different grade accounts for how readily available forfeiture records are.

It is possible that some states track details for which they have not received credit; credit has only been awarded where we found evidence of such tracking.

Accounting for Forfeiture Fund Spending

Higher grades on this element of transparency and accountability are awarded to states that require more detailed reporting on expenditures from forfeiture funds. Our research identified nine broad categories of standard law enforcement costs as well as an indicator of how much agencies spend from forfeiture funds overall, for a total of 10 accounting items. We counted how many of these details each state or federal government requires agencies to report and assigned grades using the following scale:

Grade Percentage of Details A 90–100% B 64–89% C 37–63% D 11–36% F 0–10%

Some states do not allow agencies to use forfeiture funds on one or more of the nine categories of spending. They consequently do not require reporting on those categories. To avoid penalizing such states, states are graded only according to the spending categories they actually allow. And to keep the grading scale consistent despite different denominators, states are graded on a percentage basis.

It is possible that some states report details for which they have not received credit; credit has only been awarded where we found evidence of such reporting.

States that do not permit law enforcement to spend forfeiture revenue at all are not graded on this element.

Statewide Forfeiture Reports

The most useful statewide reports we found during data collection:

are compiled annually,

are submitted to the legislature,

provide agency-by-agency data, enabling oversight and comparisons across agencies, and

include data about both properties seized and spending from forfeiture funds.

Statewide reports that meet more of these criteria earn higher grades, while states without a report earn an F, as in the following scale:

Grade Number of Criteria A 4 B 3 C 2 D 1 F No statewide report

In some states that recently changed their forfeiture reporting laws, the law is silent as to whether forthcoming statewide reports must provide agency-by-agency data. We therefore cannot know whether those states’ new reports will provide such data until the reports actually become available. In the meantime, such states’ report cards will show a question mark (?) for the third criterion above.

States that send all forfeiture proceeds to a general fund without deducting expenses need only report data about seized properties to earn full credit for the fourth criterion above.

Accessibility of Forfeiture Records

Higher grades on this element of transparency and accountability are awarded to states that make forfeiture information more easily accessible to legislators and the public. Our research identified four transparency practices currently in use by at least one state or federal entity for their statewide reports and other forfeiture records. We subsequently ranked the practices from most to least transparent, as in the following scale:

Grade Transparency Practice A Required by law to be published online B Published online, although not required to be C Designated by law as public records subject to freedom-of-information requests D Known to exist, but not explicitly designated as public records F No known records

Because not all states create statewide reports, this grade reflects transparency practices for different types of reports and records in different states. In states with statewide reports, grades reflect whether those reports are required to be online or are regularly posted online. Agency-level records may be more difficult to obtain than grades in such a state suggest.

In states without statewide reports, grades reflect the availability of agency-level records.

States with no known forfeiture records receive an F.

Penalties for Failure to File a Report

On this element of transparency and accountability, higher grades are awarded to states whose penalties for noncompliance are more likely to have the desired effect of ensuring that agencies are filing required reports on time. We identified four ways states penalize agencies for failing to report and ranked them from most to least stringent, as in the following scale:

Grade Penalty A Forfeiture funds withheld until report filed and agency fined for late filing B Forfeiture funds withheld until report filed C Agency fined or forced to pay for audit D Agency identified in statewide report for failure to file F None Incomplete No reporting requirements to enforce

States with no penalties receive an F. States with no reporting requirements to enforce receive an “Incomplete” in lieu of a grade.

Some states always require agencies to report, regardless of whether they seized or forfeited any property during the reporting period; such requirements allow oversight bodies to differentiate between agencies that did not engage in forfeiture activity during the reporting period and those that are failing to follow the rules. An asterisk (*) is appended to a state’s grade if agencies in that state must file a so-called null report.

Financial Audits of Forfeiture Accounts

Higher grades on this element of transparency and accountability are awarded to states that require regular, timely and independent financial audits of forfeiture accounts, thereby promoting greater integrity in accounting for forfeiture revenue and spending. We identified four audit types currently in use by at least one state or federal entity and ranked them from best to worst, as in the following scale:

Grade Audit Type A Annual or biennial independent audit B Annual or biennial internal audit C Subject to independent audit at government oversight body’s discretion D Subject to internal audit at government oversight body’s discretion F None

States with no audit requirement receive an F.

This grade is not applicable to states that do not permit law enforcement agencies to spend forfeiture revenue and instead direct all forfeiture proceeds to a general fund subject to legislative control.