https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Seward-County-Sheriff-Nebra...
Was there one listed? As of this moment it says there are none.
Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
131–140 of 156 posts
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#132Without wanting to offer an opinion on the case presented in this article, and certainly not wanting to argue in favor of civil asset forfeiture, which is obviously abused nationwide, the author of this news piece definitely smoothed down the facts alleged in Bouldin's case: The officer testified to various pieces of information that he obtained during the stop that led him to believe that Bouldin intended to purchas…
What Bouldin described is extortion, plain and simple: > There, on the side of the road, 1,300 miles from his Virginia home, in a state where Bouldin knew no one, a sheriff’s deputy handed him a form. > You can sign this piece of paper, abandon the $18,000, avoid arrest and continue on to Colorado, he says he was told. > Don’t sign, and you will go to jail. You could face felony charges. Your van will be towed. Your…
And because the court system is also underfunded, and uses the exact same practices to make up for that, you may not see your case for, I believe the record (not in this County) was at 19 years.
Oh and of course, you can actually be locked up for that time. Legally. No worries. If you're found innocent you get 14$ per day locked up. And usually urgent medical care is provided to inmates after a month or two by an intern (not an actual doctor).
I mean "just refuse" is not going to work. These people use violence.
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#133[dead]
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and certainly not wanting to argue in favor of civil asset forfeiture, which is obviously abused nationwide I feel like even entertaining these conversations about what crime the individual may have been contemplating allows the conversation to be derailed. If the individual had been caught in the act of handing over cash for illegal drugs, it would still be an outrageous corruption for the police to simply seize t…
I'm not sure I follow. If he'd actually been caught trafficking, what would the conflict of interest be?
Police funding should not scale with the number of arrests they make—otherwise they have a direct interest in making more arrests, which leads to the corruption described in TFA. I'm fine with the money being seized by the state in the above scenario, but only after conviction, and never for direct use by the police.
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
It creates many perverse incentives for law enforcement. Even if you require a conviction before CAF can be applied, it means that police funding is directly tied to number of convictions instead of the health of the community, and in particular ties funding to convictions in cases where large amounts of money are involved. This disincentivizes preventatory measures of any sort (because preventing crime brings no pro…
If he'd actually been caught trafficking, he'd have been guilty of the offense charged. I don't understand the conflict. It sounds like maybe you more broadly oppose cannabis prohibition in Nebraska? Most people here do!
No, I'm not taking a stance on drugs. I'm not saying him losing $18k as a fine would be a problem.
I'm saying that the police requisitioning his $18k and that money going towards the department budget creates perverse incentives for the police. If that money went to funding schools the problem would be much less severe. But when the head of the police department gets CAF money added to the top line of his budget, it will shape the way he directs his force, and the incentives it gives him are wrong.
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#136[dead]
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#137Drive through this county everyday. The tricks they got up their sleeve are impressive if you don’t have a local plate. RIP to Illinois and Cali plates. ETA: Yes, everyday you drive through this county you will see cops searching vehicles (usually out of state plates, CO/CA/IL the most obvious). Almost feel bad for legit people driving through I80 with out of state plates, but the's what happens when you have a low p…
> ... but the's what happens when you have a low population state with a major thoroughfare. Well, not really - that's what happens when you don't fully fund your law enforcement at a state or federal level and instead leave them to fund themselves through fines and seizures. Local authorities shouldn't be allowed to keep a single penny of anything they seize or any fines they rack up. They should be fully funded by…
They should be required to burn the cash publicly. Serves the purpose of deterring those awful, awful drug dealers they've been letting go. And it also removes the incentive to, you know, steal cash from innocent people.
(But they should remain legally liable for returning the money if/when the legal process says so.)
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to agree here. The author, I would argue, does the topic a disservice by not presenting the details of the state's arguments and evidence against Bouldin, and not more clearly distinguishing stories of two methods here. The "abandonment" form and negotiation, sounds quite a bit like legalized bribery. But with Bouldin, given the evidence (to what you quote, the supreme court summary [1] adds that his prior con…
> he was, more likely than not, on a trip to smuggle marijuana. > The money was more likely than not to be for the purpose of smuggling marijuana. What is the basis of these claims? Do you have any statistics backing it up? Do you, for example, know how often Bouldin drives with cash in his car and do you know how often Bouldin engages in smuggling of marijuana with said cash?
The "more likely than not" here was from a legal perspective, not a statistical one. The state presented evidence that doesn't seem like it would be nearly enough to convict Bouldin, but they could argue was suggestive of the smuggling: the cash, the vacuum sealer and bags, a previous conviction with a large quantity of marijuana, some text messages the state argued were a negotiation of a sale, and so on. Meanwhile, Bouldin didn't offer a good defense. In a criminal case, he wouldn't have needed to, and in a criminal case, the state would have needed to have strong evidence. Civil forfeiture, however, simply meant that it was enough for the state to just offer a bit more than Bouldin did.
The point here is that, if the police had nothing to offer against Bouldin, beyond that he had some cash, then civil forfeiture wouldn't have made that much difference, because he did actually challenge it: cases where people with no evidence at all against them are convinced not to challenge civil forfeiture are different, but that was not the case here. Civil forfeiture seems most dangerous in these cases where a reasonable person would look at the evidence and think that maybe the person was in the process of committing a crime, because it makes that 'maybe' enough, when in reputable criminal justice systems it wouldn't be. And when 'maybe' is enough to punish someone, then innocent people are likely to get hurt.
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
State of Nebraska can put an end to it, they choose not to.
What's worse: The county government can put an end to it, they choose not too. Most discussions about reforming or ending civil asset forfeiture focus on statehouse and federal solutions, but there's nothing stopping local governments from simply reining in their law enforcement via policy direction.
I’ve seen some states take action and limit different forms of forfeiture. So it at least happens.
SCOTUS also has taken limited action recently.
Re: Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convictions
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If he'd actually been caught trafficking, he'd have been guilty of the offense charged. I don't understand the conflict. It sounds like maybe you more broadly oppose cannabis prohibition in Nebraska? Most people here do!
No, I'm not taking a stance on drugs. I'm not saying him losing $18k as a fine would be a problem. I'm saying that the police requisitioning his $18k and that money going towards the department budget creates perverse incentives for the police. If that money went to funding schools the problem would be much less severe. But when the head of the police department gets CAF money added to the top line of his budget, it…
(a) The money does go to funding schools (roughly half of it).
(b) I still don't understand the conflict you're talking about. In your hypothetical, this money is exactly what civil asset forfeiture was designed to capture: the proceeds and instrumentalities of a crime.
If you want to argue that he wasn't guilty of any crime, and therefore the money should have been returned, that makes perfect sense! But the hypo you've provided here doesn't make sense.