Along with North Dakota, the only other state to earn an F for its law grade, Massachusetts has the worst civil forfeiture laws in the country. Massachusetts law enforcement agents just need probable cause—the lowest possible standard of proof—to believe that property was involved in a crime in order to forfeit it. State law also places the burden on innocent owners to demonstrate their innocence or ignorance of any criminal activity associated with their seized property in order to recover it. Finally, Bay State law enforcement agencies get to keep up to 100 percent of forfeiture proceeds, giving them considerable incentive to seize property.

Forfeiture reporting requirements in Massachusetts are also very poor. Law enforcement agencies are only required to keep an inventory of property seized for controlled substances violations; they are not required to produce comprehensive annual forfeiture reports. By filing a Massachusetts Public Records Law request, the Institute for Justice received accounting records that allowed statewide forfeiture proceeds to be estimated. This onerous process and the lack of any detailed information about individual forfeiture cases or even agency-level forfeiture proceeds make it impossible for the average citizen or lawmaker to hold state and local law enforcement agencies accountable for their forfeiture activity. According to IJ’s calculations, Massachusetts law enforcement forfeited almost $139 million between 2000 and 2014, an average of about $9.3 million each fiscal year.