Oklahoma State Troopers Use New Device To Seize Bank Accounts During Traffic Stops (news9.com)

mi writes from a report via news9.com KWTV: KWTV writes, "You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture. That's where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime. Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money." But do not worry: "If you can prove that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we've done that in the past," said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent.

Comments

What?

[sims 2]

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Re:What?

[rahvin112]

Civil forfeiture was instigated as a step up against the war on drugs during the early Reagan administration. After being litigated through much of the early 80's the supreme court gave it constitutional blessing. Many of the rights we've lost over the last 20 years are the direct result of prosecuting a war on drugs against our own citizens.

If we want to end these abominations of law we MUST end the war on drugs. End prohibition 2.0.

Re:What?

[Required Snark]

You are dumber then a box of rocks. Wake up, it's not the 18th century any more. You and your musket are powerless against what this represents. When the government can electronically seize you assets, track you real time, listen in on your conversations, read your email, and knows everyone that you know, having a gun is about as important as having a pile of stones to throw. Your stash of guns is about as useful in this context as stones are against a remote drone strike.

Prepper ideology and gun ownership just make it easier for the government to go about it's business of trashing the constitution. First, you have already identified who you are, and they can generate a list with you name on it in milliseconds. They know because of metadata: where and when you use your credit card, your phone records, license plate scanners, etc. Second, thinking that your gun will save you means that you are wasting time solving the wrong problem. It's a legal, law enforcement, information, and telecommunications threat, so sitting around counting your bullets and cleaning you gun means that you are a non-combatant.

You want to do something? Don't use software that requires signing a EULA. Tell your congress critter not to support the TPP. Join the EFF and the ACLU, use encryption and run Linux. That's where the conflict is occurring. Although it's a big stroke for your ego to assume that Manly Men with Guns Will Save the Day, that's just the fantasy of a little boy thinking he is Iron Man. The end of constitutional government is a bureaucratic conflict involving business and government, not a reenactment of the Revolutionary War.

Land of the fee

[Calydor]

Innocent until proven guilty, huh?

Alright, just gotta prove that the money is clean. You need to hire a lawyer to do that.

What are you gonna pay that lawyer with after all your money just got seized?

Oh, and better do it fast - rent is due soon.

Gee, I wonder why anti police sentiment exists

[FireballX301]

And the police unions wring their hands talking about how nobody trusts police anymore

Re:Gee, I wonder why anti police sentiment exists

[UnknowingFool]

And the police don't have to this at all; they are choosing to do this. But one thing that needs to be addressed is that previously the police seized the card (which they kept in their possession). Now they are seizing the money in the account. Don't you think that crosses an important line?

Catching the bad guys.

[monkeyman.kix]

This just proves how far law enforcement thinks that can go to tread over the rights and civil liberties of citizens in their pursuit of 'catching the bad guys'. This will not end but it has to. If a patrol officer has the authority to seize your bank accounts based on suspicion, whats to say they can't seize any and all assets based on nothing more than a "gut feeling". There is no requirement of proof on the officers part. Justice has deteriorated in the US. Crime has dropped to all-time lows, yet the headlines scream that there are rampant criminals stealing and profiting from drugs, terrorism, arms, whatever fits the headline of fear mongering. It is not right.

When will the citizenry of the US wake up and take back the power that has been slowly bled away form them over the last 50 years?

Don't get me wrong, I want the cops to get the bad guys. But do it right, not slimy, not by taking away the rights of free people.

Re:Bank Accounts not mentioned in TFA

[Quantus347]

The device specifically does not work if the card is directly tied to a bank account, it only works on prepaid debit cards, gift cards. From the the FAQ on the device from the manufacturer's website (https://www.erad-group.com/faqs):

Forbes has a slightly more informative write-up: http://www.forbes.com/sites/in...

War on drugs

[Okian Warrior]

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

It was thrown out with the bathwater for the war on drugs.

The perception was that drug dealers were living high off of their ill-gotten gains: owning houses, boats, off-road trucks... and flaunting their wealth in the community.

We didn't have enough evidence to charge them with drug-related crimes, so we invented civil asset forfeiture to compensate: if you even *looked* like you could be a drug dealer, you could have your assets confiscated and sold.

And the proceeds can go directly to the police department to further their anti-drug campaign. Under this new law, drug crime became a self-correcting problem as the proceeds went to fund ever-more expanded police operations. ...except that it didn't. Drug use is as high as it ever was, police can confiscate anything you own on a whim, and the action is not tied to evidence or charges, and neither the police nor the prosecutors can be held liable for mistakes and errors.

This was a problem for 20 years, and eventually the US attorney general made a ruling that in general, you can't sieze cash as civil-asset forfeiture.

(But the OP is apparently about state-sponsored seizure, not federal.)

This will to go to the supreme court, will cost about $2 million in wasted effort for some poor schmuck, cost about 10 years wasted time for some poor schmuck, and be overturned. In the meantime, OK state cops get a free pass to steal money from anyone.

And of course, when the government is eventually found doing something illegal, they are told to stop. When a company is found doing something illegal, they pay a small fine and don't admit to any wrongdoing. When a citizen is found doing something illegal, they go to jail.

And when a citizen is wrongly accused, it costs a lifetime of wages and a year or two of life effort just to escape the state's error.

What I don't understand is why more police aren't being shot in this nation. The police are trashing lives on a whim, and some of those trashed lives will have nothing to lose. I haven't had a polite interaction with a cop in 20 years, and most people say that the best policy is to avoid them at all costs. Parents are starting to teach their children not to call the police for help.

The police hurt a lot of people, unnecessarily, and a lot of people are getting desperate.

It surprises me that we're not in full-out revolt.

Re:War on drugs

[currently_awake]

The biggest lie in American politics: Voting third party is throwing away your vote. In reality when the major 2 parties see votes going third party they adopt policies from those parties to try and get those votes. Voting third party actually gives you more influence in federal politics than voting R or D.