Bradenton Police Department bypassing courts in forfeitures

BRADENTON — For years, the Bradenton Police Department has quietly, without judicial review, confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property from people they arrested for drug possession and other crimes.

The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the “Contraband Forfeiture Agreement.” By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts.

In some cases — including one last year where police seized more than $43,000 from a man during a traffic stop — people have signed over cash and other property without ever getting charged with a crime.

The cash and revenue from other forfeited property, such as cars, DVDs and TVs, go into a police bank account and is spent on equipment, drug abuse prevention and community-based programs. The bank account has reached $150,000 in recent years.

Attorneys and constitutional law scholars say they are concerned Bradenton police may be pressuring people to sign away property — and their legal rights — without an attorney. State laws under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act say a person is entitled to have a judge, not a police officer, determine the merits of forfeiture.

“Who knows what they are telling people to get them to sign it,” said Sarasota-based defense attorney Henry E. Lee, who represented a woman last year in a police forfeiture case in Bradenton. “This is a source of revenue for the police, and it’s just rife for abuse.”

A Manatee County judge last year found fault with the department’s forfeiture procedure in a case where police took more than $7,000 from a woman arrested for a driver’s license violation after a traffic stop.