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

Bank Accounts not mentioned in TFA

[cfalcon]

I see no reference to the bank accounts, only the prepaid credit cards. Can anyone site something that actually talks about the attacks on bank accounts?

Re:4th Amendment?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

They were rolled in as part of The War On Drugs; so they've been afforded a very generous hearing.

It didn't help that, after Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act in 1984, the police departments doing the seizing got to keep a substantial cut of the take. The legal theories involved go back considerably further; but the change in incentive structure was what created a...downright gleeful...enthusiasm for the practice among LEOs.

Some of the most visible characters involved either run or work with the "Desert Snow" outfit which does training on how to identifiy the juicy targets; and the associated "Black Asphalt Electronic Networking System", which is essentially a cop social network for trading tips and tales of highway robbery.

It's classy stuff.

Re:What?

[AHuxley]

If found to be driving with any amount of cash a person is "structuring" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... to avoid the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Internal Revenue Code by using the banking system with much smaller amounts of cash over time.
If no cash is found after a search, the deposit was just made or the vehicle has been altered with cash hiding compartments.
To be found with any digital banking details while driving is now fair game in that state.
Even with local plates, facial recognition of the driver and passenger can induce a "random" pull over and chat down with the "discovery" of cash or banking details.
The ability to track a face, cell phone powered on, licence plate is now so cheap any county, city, state can afford to stop anyone. If a state/federal database sees any pattern of movement or a degree separation or three of 'hops' from any suspect.
Every federal digital tracking system is now cheap enough for local law enforcement. Add in civil asset forfeiture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... in many US states and just driving gets to be very interesting.