Sessions Strengthens Police Powers to Seize Assets of Criminal Suspects

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled a new policy that strengthens the ability of law enforcement officers to seize the assets of suspected criminals, the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Sessions' directives roll back some of the reforms enacted by former Attorney General Eric Holder, who limited federal adoption to property that directly related to public safety concerns, such as weapons, ammunition or explosives. The newly-issued guidance, however, would allow law enforcement officers to seize property such as cash or cars whenever a crime is suspect.

"Sessions today announced a new Department of Justice policy… regarding the federal adoption of assets seized by state or local law enforcement under state law," the statement said. "The Justice Department’s new policy strengthens the civil asset forfeiture program to better protect victims of crime and innocent property owners."

"President [Donald] Trump has directed this Department of Justice to reduce crime in this country, and we will use every lawful tool that we have to do that," Sessions told law enforcement officials, according to the statement. "We will continue to encourage civil asset forfeiture whenever appropriate in order to hit organized crime in the wallet."

The attorney general cautioned, however that the new policy would come with safeguards to protect innocent people.

"Under today’s guidance, the federal government will not adopt seized property unless the state or local agency involved provides information demonstrating that the seizure was justified by probable cause," Sessions said.

Additionally, police will have to undergo additional training on asset forfeiture laws, and departments will be required to fill out new forms for the Justice Department to review.

The new guidance also directs Justice Department attorneys to "proceed with an abundance of caution" when "adopting," or sharing the proceeds of vehicles and residences seized by local and state police.

Sessions noted that seizing criminals’ assets helps to pay for police department equipment and training and return property to crime victims.

But the new directive authorizes police departments to seize property in cases where criminal charges are not filed.

US Senator Rand Paul highlighted growing opposition to civil asset seizures when he wrote in an April editorial that one hotel owner lost the $1.5 million property because police "suspected drug activity" in 15 out of 196,000 room rentals.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department Inspector General found state and local police agencies had made some $6 billion from civil asset forfeiture, and in some cases assigned officers to search public records for property to seize.