Florida limits Policing for Profit! Gov. Scott signs forfeiture reform bill into lawBy Shira Rawlinson This is a significant first step towards ending civil forfeiture in Florida, said Florida Office Managing Attorney Justin Pearson of the Institute for Justice, which is leading the nationwide effort to end civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture is one of the most serious assaults on property rights in America and SB 1044 increases protections for innocent property owners in the Sunshine State. The transparency requirements will also provide valuable information that should lead to additional and needed reform in the future. Civil forfeiture laws currently allow law enforcement to seize and keep property even if the owner has never been convicted or charged with a crime. Under existing Florida law, cash, cars and other property can be seized and kept by police if police merely suspectit was used for a crime. The property owner must then either negotiate to get a small portion of their property back or pursue a lengthy and expensive process in court. SB 1044 increases protections for Floridians by: The vast majority of seizures in Florida are for amounts that are far less than the cost of hiring an attorney, Pearson explained. As a result, many innocent Floridians are forced to settle for a small fraction of what was seized because it would literally cost more than the amount that was seized to attempt to get it back. By increasing costs on law enforcement to pursue forfeiture actions, this reform limits law enforcements profit incentive for these abusive practices regarding low-value forfeitures. This bill is the culmination of a two-year push for reform by state legislators, led by Sen. Jeff Brandes, and a bipartisan coalition of public interest groups, led by the Institute for Justice, the James Madison Institute, the National Federation of Independent Business and the ACLU. Gov. Scott signing SB 1044 means that Florida has joined a growing national movement to roll back civil forfeiture. In 2015, New Mexico enacted a landmark law that abolished civil forfeiture entirely. In 2014 and 2015, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., all passed crucial forfeiture reforms. IJ is working with lawmakers in states around the nation on forfeiture reforms during the 2016 legislative session. Unfortunately, despite the large, bipartisan consensus in favor of reform, the U.S. Department of Justice recently decided to resume its controversial equitable sharing program, whereby state and local authorities partner with the DOJ to pursue civil forfeitures against innocent property owners under lax federal law. Shira Rawlinson is the Assistant Director of Communications for the Institute for Justice where this article first appeared. There has NEVER been an authority or power afforded to police that they have not COMPLETELY abused, so it is nice to see that someone is putting limits on these guys. We see what they are capable of when there is no oversight and zero accountability, and the hundreds of unjustified deaths, beatings and thefts attest to it. The police are professional liars, so they need to be reigned in and given specific guidelines or they will lie and abuse their way around them, as they gave proven they will do in a plethora of cases. We have got quality og kush , bubba kush and many other strains , place your order directly from our website : 420cannabisplug . com 