By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office was recently able to purchase $3,000 worth of digital audio recorders and other recording equipment because of money the agency received through the federal government’s asset forfeiture program.

The recorders will be used for upcoming investigations, but it may be the last time forfeiture proceeds will be used by the agency because of budget cuts.

The U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Program, which has been in place since the 1970s, makes it possible for local law enforcement agencies to keep a portion of property they seize that has been used in criminal activity. The property is typically cash, but can also be vehicles or houses. The local agency that makes the seizure receives about 75 percent, and the federal government 25 percent.

If the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office confiscates a vehicle used in the sale of drugs, the federal government might “adopt” the case and initiate forfeiture proceedings to obtain ownership of the vehicle, which can also be turned over to the sheriff’s office.

Local law enforcement agencies can use these proceeds to help with training, purchasing equipment or patrol cars and even to pay officers overtime.

In a Dec. 21 letter to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice says because of a $1.2 billion budget reduction it will “defer all equitable sharing payments” to state, local and tribal partners and “transfers of any item for official use.”

This means the money the Rowan Sheriff’s Office believed it would receive to add audio-visual equipment to the superior courtroom will have to come from another source. Right now it is unclear if money that the agency would’ve received from the recent sale of a house that was seized after a drug investigation will be given to the sheriff’s office.

“It’s a big hit for law enforcement,” said Rowan Sheriff’s Chief Deputy David Ramsey.

In the last five or six years, the Rowan County has received about $250,000 from asset forfeiture. Between October 2008 and the end of June 2015, the Department of Justice and Homeland Security had turned over $106 million to the state of North Carolina in asset forfeiture proceeds, Ramsey said.

“These monies are critical to law enforcement,” Ramsey said.

He said he and state leaders have been in discussion about how to get state asset forfeiture laws in place to close this gap. It will take a constitutional change in law.

North Carolina law requires that proceeds of all penalties and forfeitures be used exclusively for maintaining public schools.

The program is not without its share of controversy, with some leaders saying the program is being abused.

As a way of encouraging state and local law enforcement to assist with the asset forfeiture program, DOJ almost immediately began promoting a policy called “equitable sharing” under which it “adopts” property seized by state and local police forces, processes it under federal asset forfeiture laws, and then returns a substantial portion of the proceeds to the force that made the seizure.

Eventually most states enacted civil asset forfeiture laws of their own

The letter goes on to say the Department of Justice explored “every conceivable option” that would enable them to preserve some form sharing while continuing to operate the program and meet their other financial obligations at the same time.

The letter says funds already disbursed to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies may continue to be used, but it is still not clear what will happen to agencies who have not received their forfeiture money yet.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.