Across the country, jurisdictions have repurposed their police officers into revenue-generating agents through the assessment and enforcement of fines, fees, and seizures. In addition to the economic and legal burdens, this reconfiguration has come at the expense of public safety and public trust in law enforcement. To return law enforcement to its core mission, this policy paper proposes state and local policy reforms. The proposals include: ending the retention of federal equitable sharing revenues by law enforcement, eliminating the retention of proceeds from forfeited property, redistributing criminal justice revenues as block grants, and rebating revenues generated by law enforcement to constituents. The author closes by emphasizing the need to return the proceeds of law enforcement to the communities currently suffering the most under the expropriation of revenue-motivated law enforcement in order to reestablish that police are working for communities, not against them.
Read the policy paper here.