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Civil Asset Forfeiture Goes Digital

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday June 09 2016, @04:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the legalized-theft dept.

An Anonymous Coward 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.

It's called an ERAD, or Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine, and state police began using 16 of them last month.

Here's how it works. 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.

"We're gonna look for different factors in the way that you're acting," Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent said. "We're gonna look for if there's a difference in your story. If there's some way that we can prove that you're falsifying information to us about your business."

...

News 9 obtained a copy of the contract with the state.

It shows the state is paying ERAD Group Inc., $5,000 for the software and scanners, then 7.7 percent of all the cash the highway patrol seizes.

http://www.news9.com/story/32168555/ohp-uses-new-device-to-seize-money-used-during-the-commission-of-a-crime

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:48PM (#357278)

    Reading between the lines, this sounds like it might only apply to stored value cards for which there is even less legal protection for disputes than even debit cards.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:34PM (#357325)

    you're probably right and this is just the thinly veiled war on cash. "why would you need cash or cash cards if you're not a criminal"? "we'll just take that then". "now go get on some trackable, controllable money, slave".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @03:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @03:12PM (#357348)

      Only terrorists use cash.

  • (Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Friday June 10 2016, @01:40AM

    by Sir Finkus (192) on Friday June 10 2016, @01:40AM (#357599) Journal

    This is particularly troubling, since it's legal to pay people using prepaid debit cards in some states. It disproportionately affects low income people with employers that use this scheme (with kickbacks from the debit card companies, I'm sure).