The Iola Police Department will enact administrative changes in light of an audit examining how law enforcement agencies handle seized property and comply with civil forfeiture laws.
The audit — made public this week by the Topeka Capital Journal — was funded by the state Legislature’s auditing arm to examine practices at IPD, as well as at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Highway Patrol, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department and Salina and Coffeyville police departments.
The goal was to sample a portion of the state’s 300 local and state agencies and share findings with lawmakers.
State lawmakers considered, but did not pass, legislation that would have changed the way state and local agencies took possession of sized property, the newspaper reported. Auditors concluded each of the agencies, including IPD, adequately safeguarded seized property.
But the Iola, Salina and Coffeyville departments didn’t prepare an annual report on the value and type of forfeitures and how proceeds were spent because administrators weren’t aware of the state law, the Capital Journal article reported. Likewise, Iola and Coffeyville didn’t issue notices of seizure to individuals as required by law, the audit found.
“All state legal requirements and best practices cited in the audit will be corrected and implemented by the department,” Iola Police Chief Jared Warner told the Capital Journal.
Warner was out of office this week and was unavailable for further comment.
In 2015, a report by the Institute for Justice criticized Kansas’ approach to allowing law enforcement agencies to seize cash and assets, even if no one had been charged or convicted of a crime, the Capital Journal reported.
The state earned a D-minus in the national analysis, a reflection of the Virginia legal advocacy organization’s conclusion Kansas law inadequately protected property rights and gave law enforcement agencies financial incentive to take property.
