Canadian County Sheriff Attacks Loveless, Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill

Canadian County Sheriff Randall Edwards says an attempt to stop the seizure of personal property by law enforcement even though the property’s owner is not charged with a crime is counterproductive and “asinine.”

In an email, Edwards attacks Senator Kyle Loveless and the reform bill he has introduced, the “Personal Asset Protection Act,” that will be studied in the interim.

Edwards claims drug interdiction programs will collapse if the bill becomes law.

Wrote Edwards in defense of the highly-criticized practice of civil asset forfeiture:

“Senator Kyle Loveless has authored a bill that will deregulate drug cartel traffic throughout our state. The bill takes all the drug monies and proceeds from asset forfeitures away from local law enforcement, who make the majority of the seizures, and gives it to the state.

“This is without a doubt the single worst, most damning, most asinine and devastating bill I have ever seen for this State and local law enforcement. This bill, if passed, will set the war on drugs back twenty years and will literally shut down the drug interdiction in this state, allowing drug traffic to run with 10 to 15 percent regulation, compared to the total state and local drug interdiction units now working interdiction in the state.

“Although the bill allows the state to continue to keep its share of the funds, it forces the local agencies to turn over its proceeds to the state. Local agencies will no longer be able to afford to work drug interdiction as a result of this bill.

“The State has not paid a penny of my Drug Interdiction program, I don’t know why they or anyone else in their right mind would think the state would be entitled to my agencies (sic) proceeds from it. The proceeds Kyle Loveless is proposing to take fund close to half of my cash funds, funds that support all my public safety programs, ranging from investigating on-line child sexual predators, to supporting nine K-9 Units and four full time drug interdiction units. These drug funds also account for a large part of my agency’s equipment, cars, radars, cameras and a multitude of other public safety equipment that Sheriffs will no longer will be able to buy, as well as jobs paid for and funded through these cash funds.

“Words can’t adequately express how this bill poses a serious and imminent threat to public safety and most directly the war on drugs in this state and nation. It’s completely asinine.”

Sincerely,

Randall R. Edwards, Sheriff

Canadian County Sheriff’s Office