MI Civil Forfeiture Reforms Head to Senate

Bills to reform Michigan’s civil asset forfeiture laws are headed to the state Senate.

Currently, police departments in Michigan can seize and keep the property of someone even if there is no conviction, which critics say incentivizes seizures.

Holly Harris of the group Fix Forfeiture says the law is an affront to everything the criminal justice system is supposed to stand for.

The reforms would increase reporting and evidentiary standards.

But Detective, Sergeant Jason Kern, of the Albion Department of Public Safety says they don’t need increased evidentiary standards.

He says there needs to be better training of police officers in determining when to seize property.

One of the bills that didn’t pass committee would have prohibited police from taking a car used in the purchase of small amounts of marijuana.

Committee chair, Senator Rick Jones, says lawyers told him the bill would legalize marijuana.

State Representative Jeff Irwin, who sponsored that bill, says the legislation wouldn’t do that.

However he says he’s not surprised that Jones, a former sheriff, would balk at advancing any bill that has the word marijuana in it.