Chicago Police Department Caught Hiding Millions In Secret Asset Forfeiture Fund

thedailysheeple.com

A detailed report released in September 2016 by the Chicago Reader unveiled a secret civil asset forfeiture fund that amounted to nearly $50 million in seized cash which the Chicago Police Department was attempting to keep for themselves. The detailed analysis shows that CPD officials were attempting to pocket 65% of the cash and assets they brought in through civil asset forfeiture. This is policing for profit, and it is no different than highway robbery.

The Reader reports:

Since 2009, the year CPD began keeping electronic records of its forfeiture accounts, the department has brought in nearly $72 million in cash and assets through civil forfeiture, keeping nearly $47 million for itself and sending on almost $18 million to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and almost $7.2 million to the Illinois State Police, according to our analysis of CPD records.

The Chicago Reader’s investigation, conducted over the past two years, concerned countless Freedom of Information Act requests by the Reader about civil asset forfeiture. Revenue from civil forfeiture is of particular interest because it is collected without scrutiny, and as the report states, once it is collected, this “secret budget isn’t scrutinized by the City Council, nor must CPD make any public disclosures about how these funds are spent.”