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MEMORANDUM 1 Attachment B 2 3 DATE: August 25, 2011 4 5 TO: City Manager Bill Malinen 6 7 FROM: Chief Rick Mathwig 8 9 SUBJECT: Forfeiture Information 10 11 This memorandum is in response to Mayor Roe’s request for a report related to questions raised 12 by a citizen. 13 14 Property seized and ultimately forfeited by the Roseville Police Department is governed by 15 Minnesota statutes: 169A.63 as it pertains to vehicle forfeitures for aggravated drunk driving 16 arrests, and 609.531 as it pertains to vehicle and property seized for designated offenses 17 such as narcotics, burglary, and other crimes. 18 19 Other property forfeited by the Police Department, not governed by Minnesota statutes, is 20 generally related to our narcotics officer assigned to the Ramsey County’s Violent Crime 21 Enforcement Team (VCET). A percentage of their forfeitures are in concert with federal 22 agencies such as the DEA. Those forfeitures are under the direction of federal laws which 23 are similar to those in Minnesota. 24 25 Each Minnesota statute contains numerous subdivisions which strictly control forfeitures 26 and the appeal processes afforded to those whose property is seized by law enforcement. 27 28 Upon seizure of property to be forfeited the owner is issued a receipt for the property and is 29 issued written documentation on how to contest the seizure in court. This information is 30 written in multiple languages and the law enforcement agency must be certain the person 31 understands the seizure and the appeal process or the seizure will be considered invalid. 32 33 Once property has been legally seized and forfeited state statutes dictate how the proceeds 34 should be dispersed. This process differs among crimes, but involving aggravated DWI 35 offenses, the law enforcement agency retains seventy percent of the proceeds and thirty 36 percent is forwarded to the prosecuting attorney. For crimes involving narcotics, burglary, 37 etc., percentages differ but in general the law enforcement agency retains seventy percent 38 of the proceeds, twenty percent is forwarded to the prosecuting attorney and the remaining 39 ten percent is sent to the State of Minnesota’s Crime Victim’s Fund. 40 41 The Minnesota Peace Officers Standards and Training Board (POST) is the state entity that 42 holds all professional licenses of peace officers in Minnesota. POST provides many 43 functions one of which is offering model policies based on best practices in law 44 enforcement. Some of the model policies are considered mandatory; Procession of Property 45 Seized for Administrative Forfeiture is a required policy of all law enforcement agencies in 46 Minnesota. The model policy was implemented in 2011. The model policy did not change our 47 forfeiture operations in any significant manner. 48 49 Minnesota statutes mandate every forfeiture be reported to the Office of the State Auditor. 50